Stairs to Heaven
by Ultimagu
Summary: Mogul once made a drive to make man divine, now he can try again. This will undoubtedly be a long and thorough voyage as man climbs newer and newer heights. Second story in the Alternate Brianback Series.
1. Hot Flashes

******AN: I do not own any part of the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri universe except the crazy ideas I may write about for your viewing pleasure.**

******Review Commentaries:**

**RMcD94: **As always I appreciate your reviews on my Brianback stories. They always mean a lot to me!

**T-Bird: **Go to hell man...

**(Story)**

_Year 2452_

When 12 years had gone by, surprisingly little had changed in such a lengthy amount of time considering the constant advances of mankind. What kind of mankind you ask? The kind stuck in the middle of a cold war that had lasted for approximately 47 years.

On the planet of Chiron, orbiting it's way around Alpha Centuari B, the world had it's share of continents. The central continent lay exactly centered in the map of Chiron. To the east lay the eastern continent, to the west the western continent, and to the north the northern continent. In the Lazarus Ocean which lay between the eastern and the western continents, was the island of Dexamenus.

In this strange alien world, mankind was split into three groups with a single sub-group. The first of the groups was the University. The University was led by Academician Provost Zakharov. The man had been an aging Russian scientist in his heyday on Earth, before Earth's inevitable destruction by man. The University wielded a powerful air force and a striking navy which commanded it's forces on the northern continent and the northern portions of the eastern and central continents. They had an underground tunnel system to ferry their land troops between the three landmasses with great haste in order to respond to any attack. Their major weapon was the tachyon gun, and their defenses were mostly probability sheaths. They also had a vast tunnel network which had connected them to the planet's mantle and in doing so they tended to not stray any more than 9km beneath Chiron's surface. They had a total population of 210,000. Their capital being University HQ.

Then there was the alliance, formerly made up of three nations, it now only had two members. The Peacekeepers and the Gaians. The alliance's _de facto_ leader was Lal, who sat at the head of the Alliance Council, formerly the World Council, while Lady Deidre Skye acted as Regent in her land. The alliance had an all powerful land army, but was stretched to the bone with it's navy and traditional air force. The alliance was focused on the southern portions of the central and eastern continent. It had several air bases which actually floated in the air. These were mostly used as "sky cities" as they were called within the alliance. They didn't actually wield anything other than a police force and an automatic defense system. The alliance as the least technologically advance faction only used chaos guns and silk steel as it's main armory. The total population accounted for 360,000 people. Their capital being UN Headquarters.

Last, but certainly not least were the Spartans. The Spartans had a long history on Chiron as the most powerful faction around. To this date, that remained true. The cold war was actually born out of the Spartan's original leader's assassination. When Colonel Corazon Santiago Brianbacks was assassinated by a Hive spy, the Spartans pronounced vendetta and eradicated the Hive within 18 hours. Corazon Brianback's successor had been Mogul Brianbacks, her husband. However this only lasted until Eric Brianbacks, the two's son had ousted his father in fear that the people would rebel against his father. Now, Eric was married to Lal's daughter, Alia Hamed Brianbacks, and Mogul had later been placed as Director of Space Programs, headquartered on Alpha Rhea, the primary moon of Chiron. The Spartan's had three central bases that accounted for a vast majority of the Spartan power. One was Dragon Brigade, which made up the entirety of the isle of Dexamenus. The second was Dragon's Heart, which stood equally large at the northern head of the western continent. The final one was Dragon's Nest, formerly Morgan Industries, standing right in the middle of alliance territory. It was a constant thorn in alliance and university sides. The Spartans employed the use of plasma shards as their main unit of weapon, but did resort to the energy expensive singularity gun on occasion to defend the walls of their major cities, including the capital, Spartan HQ. They also employed antimatter plates as a standard but did resort to stasis generators or singularity shields, on an even rarer and much smaller occasions. Unlike the other two factions, the Spartans also employed the use of singularity engines hidden deep beneath their territories to power all of their work. They wielded a powerful variety of forces, but their main driving force was their discipline, skill, and advanced state of warfare. They too wielded flying bases, "sky cities", but used them for more military like purposes. They had a total population of around 310,000.

The sub-group was actually a part of the Spartan faction, but they had relatively little use in the cold war. The Space Program. Centered at Alpha Rhea, they only made up 30,000 of the total Spartan population. They were directed by the once Director of Militant Constructions, once Supreme Leader, and once Governor of Dragon's Nest, Mogul Brianbacks. His assistant and protégé, Marie Cothran, was considered to be his other half even though they weren't really together. They were considered to be the true parents of the current Supreme Leader, Eric Brianbacks due to Corazon's death when Eric was only days old. The sub-group was considered as much because they actively did not participate in the war at all. The other two factions, the University, and the Alliance had no means to even start up a space program, and thus the space territories were considered in a neutral zone or at least a relatively little-danger zone.

The main focus of the space territories was to expand the capabilities of the Spartan faction while it was otherwise focused elsewhere. The official document did not express the private urgings of Eric to his father that he should make just enough missile satellites in order to add an additional defense and threat to the other two factions. However besides these missile satellites, Eric had given Mogul full use of resources he may need in order to produce many many food production satellites as well as energy producing and mineral producing satellites. A good 25,000 of the 30,000 under Mogul's command were already working the 49 food producing, 113 energy producing, and 30 mineral producing satellites. That of course that included the 1,500 of the 25,000 which were employed to man the 25 missile satellites and keep a very close watchful eye over their targets. Needless to say, space was beginning to get a little crowded. Because to add to that, over 300 unmanned satellites were already in use to just observe the ground.

The other 5,000 were stationed on Alpha Rhea, either terraforming the moon in order to have it support mankind without the need of space suits, or directing the collective 500 some satellites. These satellites used to be commanded and directed by agencies set up beneath Dragon Brigade and Bunker 118, but that was redirected in the face of a much more self-sufficient Space Program. Now those agencies were used as espionage centers which calculated the total amount of information that the satellites received.

Needless to say, the world was in a bit of a complex state. The rather complacent mood of the world, despite it's tensions, would drastically shift within the year.

* * *

_Year 2453_

It started in a way that came as something that was expected, and yet...unexpected. The true story would never come to be known, but a fight broke out in a missile launch site. The soldiers wanted their pay, but the University was running low on funds. The soldiers broke out into a riot, and in the subsequent actions during the riot caused a silo to open up and launch. The riot broke immediately with the blaring warnings of, **"Planet buster on route to UN Headquarters. Planet buster on route to UN Headquarters. Planet buster on route to UN Headquarters."**

Within five minutes, the unmanned imagery satellites had noted the drastic change in temperature, crust structure, and radiation in the vicinity of UN Headquarters. It was immediately recognized as a planet buster. While orders were still blaring down Alliance comm channels as the initial report that the UN Headquarters had been eradicated, a Spartan automated message was blaring across an entire continent, several islands, and out into space. **"Cold gone Hot, man your stations. Cold gone Hot, man your stations. Cold gone Hot, man your stations."**The reaction of which had been drilled into every Spartan's mind since the tense cold war had begun. With this searing burst of heat in the coldness, the like of which hadn't been felt since they had pushed the University back from their forward island bases in the northern ocean.

The University reaction was twofold. Part of the faction didn't realize they'd started this searing burst of war, and thus were a little trigger happy in shooting down a Spartan scout plane that was flying along the border. The other reaction was one trying to reign in the other part that was trigger happy.

By this time, an estimated half an hour had passed and the alliance had begun it's retaliatory action against the University, using it's superior land forces to drive forward across the border while thrusting volley after volley of initial ballistics into known congregation points for the University army.

Meanwhile the Spartans getting another account of action retaliated by using their "sky cities" to drive forward over eastern and western University sea territory, bombarding from very long range several volleys towards the northern continent and known sea bases that acted as the forward bases in case of war.

The University's reaction to this twofold attack was a third portion that was not only trigger happy but very eager to get moving. Several attack tunnels had been drilled right beneath alliance territory. Several elite squads broke out from beneath their hiding places and emerged in rural areas outside the major defense posts on the Alliance/University borders, infiltrating and causing much confusion in the Alliance retaliation effort.

Fearful of an ultimate switch around, and seeing the beauty of the moment, Dragon Brigade and Dragon's Heart launched over 3,000 planes, all aimed to bombing the Alliance automatic defenses. In the meantime Dragon's Nest would bring itself up to full alert and destroy anything with the sheer volume of defenses it held in it's spiraling presence.

The Alliance after a good three hours after UN Headquarters had been eradicated, came to the realization that the University and the Spartans were finally teaming against them in an alliance of their own and aimed to destroy them. Deidre's reaction, as the newly appointed de facto leader of the Alliance was to make a major thrust towards Dragon's Nest as well as diverting several reserve troops to manning the automatic defenses to improve their efficiency.

The University under the two-sided attack opened another silo and fired a planet buster towards Dragon's Nest. It was shot down almost immediately when recognized as a planet buster by a missile satellite. The reaction caused tons of radiation to spray down all over the eastern continent Alliance major defense point. The resulting loss of life was observed by several tens of thousands. All stopping from their spot, in space, in the areas around, to watch as the huge explosion rained down on the land and killed around 25,000 men, women, and children.

It is at this point that something awoke. Mogul awoke from his cyrogenesis that helped elongate all of their lives. Mogul awoke to the loud demands of his son to awaken. Mogul swung himself from the gurney and detached himself from the machine that had helped him for over 1,000 years and looked blearily towards the visage of his son. "Hmm?" Mogul asked out. He had been woken early, that much he could tell.

The bleary face moved in time to the sounds Mogul could hear. "Father, you must awaken." That voice...it had a hint of fear in it. Something that Mogul had not heard for quite some time.

Eyes snapping open with a sharp intensity to their depths, Mogul looked out at the visage of his only son. It wasn't hard to process that Eric looked even the slightest bit scared. If anything of the silent red lights streaming around the sides of the metallic room said anything, Eric was sitting on a hot plate right about now.

Moving his way to sit up and face his son more directly Mogul smiled in a way only an _ancient_ man such as he could. After 1,000 years, death becomes a constant companion. Sometimes strategy was not always brilliant enough to move around pure brute strength. Sometimes technology not able to succeed where the primitive could. These were things he knew well by now.

Speaking in his aging gruff manner, Mogul felt old. Hell, he _was _old! "Eric..." he paused unsure of how to word this. "I want you to drive for the heart. The head may control the snake during it's rational moments, but these are irrational times. Strike the heart, master of the irrational moments. Understand?"

The two stood there in time, staring at one another. This would be a major shift in power. It would signal that though Mogul was still needed as an advisor, he was most definitely not in the hot seat anymore. In way, he couldn't be any more happy about that.

Their moment lasted until Eric nodded his head and closed the channel. It would be war then. A war to destroy the heart of what the alliance and university essentially were. All Mogul could do was hum loudly in annoyance at the peeping toms looking at him from the medical ward. He smirked though, Marie would have their heads if she noticed.

* * *

_Year 2454_

When the hot flash was over, the world stood in absolute awe of the shift. Much of the University navy had gone down trying to position themselves in between the central and eastern continent. Subsequently, the University air force had suffered as well. UN Headquarters was gone, nothing remained but a crater and a sensor array which was still forever torn by the explosion. The top half had blown away, several kilometers. It became a monument to what the U.N. had tried to avoid in moving man to another planet.

The Alliance "sky cities" were damaged beyond repair. Four lay floating on the surface of the ocean, their interior crews having barely maneuvered them into the water rather than the land. The other three had become like meteors, blowing up in the sky and raining down a giant mess of fire onto the land.

The obvious major shift in power came from the fact that the battlefield had not been on Spartan territory and thus, the Spartans retained much of their power. The University and Alliance however, had lost much.

The University had lost 50,000 men, bringing them down to 160,000. The Alliance, being the main part of the battleground had lost 110,000, bringing them down to 250,000. While the Spartans had lost 20,000, bringing them down to 290,000. The total loss of life had been estimated around 180,000, just a little over twenty percent of the world's population.

In the after math of the events, Eric struck forth to end the feuding mankind. He proposed an idea that man be united, like the Alliance, and yet at the same time more like the World Council of old. Eric wanted to remain mostly independent while a council oversaw an international affairs with more power than the World Council had wielded.

The response hadn't been very proper. To Eric's frustrations, while he may have cut off the head of the snakes, he hadn't been quite able to reach their hearts. Deidre in the after math sanctioned the annexation of Peacekeeping land, thus making her the sole leader of what was formerly the Alliance. Now, it was merely Gaia's Stepdaughters once more. The Gaian faction had dwindled in size, having lost it's control of the central continent, but it had gained the northern section of the eastern continent.

The University likewise had a shift in power. Provost Zakharov was deemed to mentally unstable and shipped away to Spartan HQ in order to be detained in the prison which already held three other former faction leaders. With two of the original faction leaders also dead, this left Lady Deidre Skye as the last and oldest faction leader.

The University, sick of supreme leadership and how it had won and then lost them significant power, set up the Academician Council, which would rule from it's only remaining territory, the northern continent.

The cold war was officially over however. The Spartans were the uncontested winners, controlling two thirds of the planet's surface, having the largest population, being able to restore what it had lost the fastest, and being the only ones capable of having a space program.

In the wake of this vast Spartan territory, some sort of amiability sprouted between the three factions. Trade began to start up quite actively. An effort was made, and accomplished, to remove the radiation that the planet busters had caused. What had once been ways of transporting troops around the northern, central, and eastern continents were now used for trade and transportation of civilians.

All in all, sprouting for the very intense hot flash was a wave of prosperity and the beginning buds of friendship once more.

**(Story)**

**AN: November 21st, 2011: Wow! I had been planning on putting in these edits some time ago as I completely standardize the formatting of my chapters and here I've been negligent with one of my best writings! Now I feel like an ass. lol.**

**Anyway, I'm also currently working on adding new material to my story called _Tails Combined_ which is a Final Fantasy IX fanfic which follows Zidane and Freya. You might not be interested, but I sure as hell love it! I hope these edits help for you!**

**REVIEW! Review or I'll planet buster your ass!  
**

**AN2:**

It has been my great pleasure writing this story and the accumulated six other stories relating to Mogul Brianbacks. I find it time for me to lay him to rest as, let's be honest, with only 46 stories in the Alpha Centauri section and with myself having written seven of those...I've written roughly 15 percent of the total archive. All of which concern and are focused around the Mogul Brianbacks Universe.

If you've enjoyed this series or even just this story, please review. It makes a weary writer feel good to receive reviews. I don't mind the flames, I like the advice. Find useful information in all formations of rock, an' all.

If you desire to, and please don't laugh when I say this, to write a story about Mogul or something about the Dragonites, just send me a message to get my approval. Make sure to reference where you got your ideas. I don't want to see any unreferenced Spectrumites running around or I'll send the Chirotes after you.

Well, it's been fun all! Au revoir.

**Author's Announcements:**

I know hardly anyone reads my profile (which wouldn't matter since it's out of date anyway), so I have posted these following announcements in all of my stories to let you formally know that I will be attempting to write chapters for most of my stories once again. I cannot guarantee anything, but I am most willing to make the effort.

That's the important part. Here come the details (your queue to leave if you want).

**Reasons Why I Haven't Been Writing:**

Well…geez, put me on the spot without time for cookies or milk. I haven't been writing mostly because of the combined dedications my life has required of me. In the time since I wrote _Memoirs of a Time Traveler_ I have done the following things, each further complicating my life as a burgeoning adult:

1. Began a polyamorous relationship.

2. Managed to get my girlfriend of five years pregnant.

3. Fought with the parents of the newest member of our 'Triad' in the Triangular relationship.

4. Finally given up the idea of trying to treat both of my girlfriends equal in public status and married my pregnant girlfriend (to avoid the evil state of Indiana's bureaucracy).

5. Had my mother-in-law move in to help us with bills.

6. Had a child whom we call Alex.

7. Managed to obtain a 35 hour job (which previously had been 20 hours since after #3 but before #4).

8. Have continued my undergraduate education throughout the entire process.

**Reasons Why I Will Begin Writing Anew:**

These are the reasons why I'm more optimistic about a renewed writing!

1. Resigned from my job since my boss is a douche and was probably going to fire me anyway.

2. Finals are over!

3. Looking for another job and taking care of Alex, but still plenty of free time from the additional hours (some 70 in my week) which have been freed up recently.

4. Because I hate to see 'abandoned' on my stories!

I look forward to presenting everyone with wonderful new material on old ideas. Let it be known, however, that not all of my lack of posting is from a lack of writing. I have written three chapters for various stories when my computer crashed around seven months ago. Don't blame me, blame the elves.

So, without further ado, I bid you welcome into a new age of writing by Ultimagu.


	2. Trouble in Paradise?

******AN: I do not own any part of the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri universe except the crazy ideas I may write about for your viewing pleasure.**

**(Story)**

_Year 2460_

Given just six years, and you might not even think a cold war had been taking place for a good portion of a century. With the Spartan's uncontested dominance of the western and central continents, a vast array of land was now theirs. With it, they could scarcely think of what they wanted to do with it. Before the Great Vendetta, as it was being called, they had become accustomed to fighting battle almost universally on the western continent. They had fought the Believers on the western continent twice. They had fought the Hive on the western continent. They had lived and breathed by the shores of the Freshwater Sea for as long as they could remember.

Now, not only within their grasps but beneath their feet lay such places as the UN Memorial, something the three factions had collectively erected. There was Garland's Crater, where the original U.N. Unity had crashed. There rivers they had only heard of in stratagems. Cities they'd only visited during times of peace and lusted after during times of war. Moreover, the central continent was the largest of all the continents. An entirely new system of infrastructure would have to be erected.

This is where our story comes into perspective.

Mogul did not like the sight he was seeing. Whoever had screwed up bad enough in trying to imitate his masterful infrastructure, that now required his protégé to be _demanded_ by her son in order to set these things right, deserved to die. It was perhaps something Mogul didn't quite understand himself. Marie was a great companion, she was nearly at a point Mogul might consider considering her as his intellectual equal. That did not erase the fact that her leaving their rather comfortable existence of Alpha Rhea was making him twinge in ways he did not understand.

The shuttle was something he was proud of, being able to withstand re-entry and yet powerful enough to exit the atmosphere all on it's own. It was officially marked as the F9 shuttle. It even had two simplistic chaos guns attached to it's nose in case they should be needed to destroy debris or fight off, as best it could, air planes.

Yet this is where he stood, in the hanger, watching his wonderful companion and...dare he say it...friend who was embarking off into the madness that was Chiron. Oh it may be peaceful for now, but all factions knew it could only be war that perfectly aligned man as a unified species for the second time since he was naught but a primitive ape with only slightly more brain cells.

When the Asian woman turned in her space suit to give him a rather mocking salute he brought up a single finger, a gesture she wouldn't recognize, being far too many centuries before her time.

Shaking her head, the little Asian woman departed from his sight. Unknowingly stepping out of Mogul's sight for a couple of decades.

* * *

_Year 2461_

In the year 2461, Mogul announced to his crew of 40,000 that he would be embarking on the next dangerous level of space infrastructure. He, along with several teams, would be designing the complete detail that would be required in order to build a spacial city. Something which would have it's own mineral producers, it's own energy producers, and it's own food producers. To forge something completely new.

In turn, since Mogul was focused elsewhere, his assistant, the Deputy Director Tashikawa, would be taking over the more important details of the space program.

It was in this year as well, that the first activities of Marie began as the Director of Militant Constructions came to shape the total infrastructure of the central continent. Old cities had to be laid to waste and scraped. The old system simply did not mesh. In the place of the old system, Marie had planned something not unlike the infrastructure already set up on the western continent.

A single towering base would be built in the center of the continent, to be aptly named Dragon Mountain. From this point, everything would spiral out and be interconnected. Dragon Mountain would not only facilitate the continued construction, but it would also house the 80,000 men and women who sought to return their home continent in the after affects of the war.

This moment in time would be one of the reoccurring themes in the continuance of hostilities between the three factions. Only now, it the hostilities would eventually flow in two simple directions. Advanced mankind, the Spartans who were expanding out in space. As well as the Terran mankind, who were more like their Earthen ancestors in that they were quite as advanced. Those are much later times however. For the meantime, this was just the first traceable reason why that occurred.

The central continent would have one other perk to it. The entire coastline would forged of a 100 meter high wall that would only be opened in small ports. These ports would be guarded tooth and nail with automatic defenses. Marie had designed her continent well.

That did not rid her of a plaguing thought however. As she sat by her original office in Spartan HQ, overlooking the majesty that the Spartans had apparently turned the Freshwater Sea into, though Mogul scoffed and told her as a side story one time that the Freshwater Sea had always been that particular shade of blue, and pondered the mystery that was her friend. Mogul had recognized something within her and stirred it to the point where sometimes she actually almost thought _ahead_ of him. It was scary to realize, considering the immense prowess the ancient man had forged around himself.

His hide was thick and coated in defenses. It amazed her Corazon had wormed her way inside. Much harder was it to imagine a much younger version of Mogul warming up to a particular tree-hugger.

Tapping a pen against her lip, Marie tried to dissect the puzzle known as Mogul Brianbacks. The man who had apparently lived for over a thousand years by some sheer divine intervention in his murder by an insane Deidre. She could hardly imagine the life he had lived...or the Isle of Dexamenus being the sole seat of power for the most powerful faction the world had ever known at the time. It was even harder to imagine that her Mogul withheld 1,065 years of memories. He could still even accurately describe his time on Earth, though there were few people who could contend with such memories anymore. Out of all the deaths that had kept the population of Chiron beneath a solid million, only three or four people who had boarded the U.N. Unity were still around. Mogul, as the ship's cook and stowaway. Deidre, who had been in charge of the gardens. There was an old man who'd been in cyrogenesis when the U.N. Unity crossed the stars. The final one was Alia, who was technically a clone of Lal's wife from Earth. She had been spawned from her creator's cell.

You couldn't really count the four bodies deep beneath Spartan HQ, as they could hardly be considered to have souls or minds anymore. The punishment sphere did that to people. Miriam, Yang, Morgan, and Zakharov simply existed no more. Their avatars remained, but they forever damaged by the punishment sphere. Nothing short of a time jump or divine providence could restore them.

Thus Marie found herself confronted by another subject. The public. They seemed to think that she and Mogul...well...

She couldn't even finish the idea of it. It sounded so silly...and yet...

She found herself breathing heavily. A 126 year old shouldn't be like this. She was far too young to be considering such _devious_ things with her mentor, her friend, her hairy beast...

Eyes widening in shock she lost grip of her pen and shuddered. Such a difficult to avenue to explore. Especially when she realized they slept in the same room, they ate in the same room, they shared a lot of common experiences and enjoyed pursuing science.

Retreating from the window, Marie needed to think on this some more.

* * *

_Year 2462_

With the preliminary testing complete, Mogul had moved from the realm he was growing comfortable in on Alpha Rhea, where he was surprisingly pleased to find little reminders of Marie everywhere in their room, into deep space. From the deep space pocket which was orbiting Chiron, but at three times the radius, the production of the first spacial city was well under way. As soon as the central hub was complete, they'd move inside of it and organize it's orbit to be perfect. That it may never hit anything within 980,000 orbits...that was as best they could calculate at the time.

From this spot, he could not contact his Marie in any way. Comm channels were down thanks to an influx in Alpha Centuari Proximus radiation. This meant that should anything go wrong, this could very well be it for Mogul. However he wasn't an ancient man for nothing. Death didn't bother him. They'd been dueling for over a millennium. Death had even won a round. But that didn't mean it could stop him from moving on past a second and a third and fourth. Mogul already felt the buds of a thirst to find out how he had jumped not only in time, but also in universe.

The driving force behind Mogul's construction was the hope that one day, he would be able to return to Alpha Rhea with Marie. Oh how the tides of time thrash us about even of her shores.

As it just so happened, this was the very same year that a particular handsome man made his way into the Militant Constructions hierarchy. His name was Kent. Kent Mijalis. He, and his smooth talking ways, would bring about a sharp turn in history.

When Marie met the man, she'd attribute the lack of the shining example that was Mogul as the reason why she ever even fell for the cretin, and in reality, that was probably about as close to the truth as you could get.

He'd been turned out of Bunker 118 for angering the governor's wife. This entire exile from Bunker 118 caused him to be reassigned to a place where he wouldn't even in passing go near the base. Militant Constructions or the Space Program. That was all that would do it. In the end, Mogul sent Kent off somewhere else for his lack of usefulness.

Kent, immediately smitten with his new superior, worked his wiles down to the bone until Marie finally gave in and agreed to some coffee. Woe is he who fails to account for another man's lust, another man's greed, another man's desires.

* * *

_Year 2465_

When Mogul stepped down from the F9 shuttle, the first thought in his head was Marie. How delightedly young he felt. He had realized with a stir that he did indeed recognize the pull on his heartstrings. He'd felt it twice before! Now, he couldn't help but smile at all he desired to say.

He did not understand the rather...forlorn? looks he was receiving. Were they forlorn? Why would he receive those faces? He'd just built the first spacial city! Come on people! He felt ashamed of his subordinates at the moment, that they could not marvel at the true frontier they were exploring.

Diving straight away into his private room he couldn't help but feel wonderful at the familiar sights. He was a changed man. He could feel again! He actually laughed a few weeks ago and it had scarred the returning crew from the spacial city, which was to be called the Dragon's Horde, for life. It would scar them for life! This brought fresh peels of laughter to him once again as he sat down at the comm station and opened up the link to contact Marie. His precious Marie.

Still in wonderful amusement, a stupendous bliss, Mogul hardly cared a man answered the comm link. When the bright young face of his Marie appeared and the man had walked off, Mogul wasn't distraught to see her robed in a matching set of a robe of the man from before. He didn't even think of it at the time.

She was the first to speak, "Oh...Mogul!" Her pleased tone did not go unnoticed by either male listening raptly at her words. "It's been years since you went off. How's the work?"

Head leaning to a side, his gruff manner for once disposed of, he responded, "Dragon's Horde," to which she chuckled, he had an affinity for naming everything after dragons and it had rubbed off on her, "is complete. A skeleton crew is in place to keep it stationed until Eric is ready to move the first 40,000 in." He didn't say that the estimate that it could house 40,000 was the maximum they'd set on the range of people. It might be lucky to actually fit in 30,000. Those 30,000 would however almost double the construction going on in outer space, thus making it that they could construct another spacial city in around a year's time.

"That's good to hear." Marie was beginning to look uncomfortable. Yet Mogul had no idea as to why. They'd never had these sort of uncomfortable moments before. Unbeknown to Mogul, Marie was a little worried Kent might become jealous by the easy going relationship she had with her mentor. But at the same time, a _happy_ Mogul was such a rare sight that it made her worry the world was going to end.

How little she knew.

"Mogul, I'd like you to meet Kent. Kent..." a small out-of-range sound was heard to which she responded frustratingly, "...he doesn't care if you're naked!" Another out-of-range sound and a man came within sight, naked now. The sight caused a sense of dread in Mogul's aging heart.

By the time Marie had realized, and she was a very smart woman...she realized very quickly, what had happened and more importantly why it had happened, the dye had already been cast. Mogul's face had hardened. It had not only hardened, it was steely. The look of the face that had been a madman, ready to control the world through his seat as supreme leader even while his people suffered under his reign by his very distance from them.

It was Mogul who spoke, his voice at once gruff. "Pleasure to meet you peon." Oh, he was out and out something at the moment. He was angry, that much she realized. She even realized why, but didn't want to admit it to herself.

Kent responded in a similar gruff manner, two males sizing each other up over a female and neither liking the other. Kent however vastly underestimated the sheer volume of power the man he was trying to size up held. He knew Mogul Brianbacks had been the Supreme Leader at one point, but he was considered to be so mentally destroyed he could hardly keep the Space Program afloat. A common misconception amongst the Spartans was that space was a silly frontier better suited for the University scholars than the Spartan warriors. Space could be conquered after their fellow humans had been conquered. Planet would be conquered in between those two stages. Likewise, this notion of thought was imitated in other faction entertainment as going on to think, "once I've conquered the planet, I'll conquer the system. And once I conquer the system, I'll conquer the quadrant. And once I've conquered the quadrant, I'll conquer the galaxy. And once I've conquered the galaxy, I'll conquer the universe." So on and so on this entertainment went until the Spartans were said to one day hoping to conquer existence itself.

Little did Kent know, that's exactly what Mogul wanted. He wanted to see everything about the universe and extend his reach to that point.

Kent was but small obstacle in Mogul's way. Before even Mogul himself realized it, Marie had calculated exactly how things would turn out. These two, whose personalities were so alike in many ways, would find some way to achieve her approval and the loser would be left to the wayside. In Mogul's case, Kent would probably become mind worm feed. Actually, that was what was going to happen. Absolute certainty. As much as she adored Kent, he couldn't hold a flame to Mogul, and in a way she wondered if she had allowed this to happen so Mogul might finally take some sort of step towards something between them, rather than just using her as an emotional support beam and a vase to fill up with his knowledge.

Marie, for once asserting herself in a situation spoke quietly, "I don't care how you two _think_ you'll win me over, and I frankly don't care. I've decided." Giving a long stare towards Mogul she saw him stiffen, a sign he was becoming more enraged. His reaction to hostility was rage. They were directly proportional to one another. The more hostility he received, the more he gave. He was just about down venting from his wife's death, how would he take a whole new situation at hand?

Caring little, Marie up and walked off in her robe. Announcing she would have no part in their fight.

The silence that settled from Marie's leaving the comm channel did not immediately give way to threats and torture. Instead, it dragged on until at length Mogul muttered something about a planet buster and Kent's ass before signing out.

It was clear, things would be a little different for the time being.

**(Story)**

**AN: November 22nd, 2011: Phew! I am burning through these edits like hot cheese and pancakes (which I dearly love). I noticed someone actually paid attention to my edit and sent me a message...**

**A message? Really? You couldn't be so kind as to leave me a nice review? Why do I have that problem so much? Just leave a review if it's about my story or the writing style in the story, don't plug up my inbox with what-should-be-reviews!**

**Anyway, I'm also working on another chapter for my story called _Haremization_, and it has been in the process of being made for the past two months. ...What? I've lost a lot of motivation for the story. It's not like while I was writing any of my Brianback stories where I would just keep writing and writing for an hour and a half and feel happy about the progress. Now I just look at _Haremization_ and wonder what the hell I'm doing anymore. I'm probably about to stop and offer it up for adoption...but then I'd feel terrible about that possibility.**

**If you guys have any questions about the story, put it in a review and I'll address it as best as I can since seems to be not letting me directly respond anymore. It's not like I don't put up comments on the reviews in the chapters of the story anyway. Anyway, ENJOY!**


	3. The Eye of the Dragon

**AN: I do not own any part of the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri universe except the crazy ideas I may write about for your viewing pleasure. **

**(Story)**

_Year 2470_

In five year's time, the collective power of Dragon Brigade, Dragon Heart, Dragon's Nest, Dragon Mountain, and Dragon Horde were enough to in a single burst of power spark the very last of the mind worms into consciousness. As a collective unit, the institutionalized mind worms, as compared to Deidre's primitive mind worms, were undergoing rapid development in several testing facilities in orbit around Alpha Rhea.

The chief aim of these conscious mind worms was to study the development of knowledge as well as find a subservient use for them. Almost at once a subservient use was abolished due to the threat of rebellion by the still developing beings. So the following measure was taken. Every single mind worm that was institutionalized would be given a processing chip to make them more readily obedient to the empath that was assigned to them.

While that was going on, the infrastructure of the central continent was finally up to par with the western continent, and the resulting influx of population showed drastically. The University had a population of 170,000, they're northern continent too small to support any more. The Gaians had a population of 280,000, as the northern part of the eastern continent had been terraformed greatly by the University during their years of their occupation. The Spartans on the final hand had a population of 350,000, 60,000 of which was in space.

However, on the issue of infrastructure came borders.

The original mechanisms of war had slowly been turned into the mechanisms of trade. The two bridges the Alliance had built were used as bridges for immense loads of traffic. The four downed sky cities had been maneuvered by the Gaians to protect the western border should anything come of that.

The tunnel system the University had built was in full citizen ferrying mode, constantly racing in two tracks of the same circle. One going clockwise, the other going counter-clockwise. With this, since all three continents were different factions, customs was very picky in this area.

In addition to the tunnel system between Dragon Brigade and Dragon Heart, a bridge had been built between the central and western continents in order to further increase the productivity of the Spartan faction.

In this world however, existed a wretched form of a man. Mogul.

Mogul was outraged. He personally wanted to gut and skin the man who had stolen his Marie...and yet...

She wasn't his Marie. Not really. He'd laid claim too late. His isolation in space spoke enough of that. He was managing more than he should be trying to chew, developing the two newest space cities at the same time.

He had a treacherous notion in mind however. Something very much akin to the rise of Eye of the Dragon. In fact, his dealings with a few brilliant minds and strong hands would determine whether or not he decided to pull it off.

He was exactly 1,074 years old. His beloved Marie, no matter how estranged from him she was, was 135 years old now and officially been declared his equal. Her mind seemed to know no bounds while his seemed stuck.

In part he realized, as he stared blankly at the designs before him of Bunker 45 and Elapse, the two new spatial cities to be built sometime soon. He realized at the moment that his opponent was not only that disgusting Kent, it was also Marie in a way. He had to prove himself to be the m-...but wait. That line of thought. Did it distract him from his previous love? Corazon had meant so much to him, had he truly passed on to the next woman so easily? He didn't take into account it'd only taken over 80 years.

Somewhere in the darkest regions of Mogul's heart, something festered in it's appetite for Mogul's growth. It was the same part of himself that had left Earth, never shedding a tear over the departure. It was the same part of him that had yearned for the beauty of Deidre Skye, a woman who was possibly the only one who loved nature more than he, who had the capacity to love it more than he. It was the same part of him that had developed Project Betty. And it was the same part of him that now constructed his decision.

Moving to another consul a few quick strokes and an overriding password altered the course of fate from what Marie had expected. One of the unmanned satellites thrust a rocket and spiraled out of control.

Within the hour, no one had noticed due to Mogul's interference with a downed Spartan network on Alpha Rhea. When the technicians had managed to get it back up and running the first uttered words were, "That's impossible!"

A loud explosion quickly became nothing as the top layers of the primary base on Alpha Rhea, Alpha Base, were torn off leaving the under layers exposed to the very space they were so eager to be in. The suctioned power caused every loose piece of paper, chair, wrench, human...to fly off into space. Most of them immediately exploded on the inside due to the air pressure in their lungs.

The camera monitoring the room, where Mogul had been sitting patiently while the technicians were fixing the network recorded all five men in the room being jettisoned into space. It did not know that Mogul had counted down to the last second and expelled most of the air from his lungs, giving him 30 seconds to make it to a door in one of the damaged upper layers and hide himself away. It did not register the outcry that would follow in the Spartan faction. It only recorded what it saw...and the unknowing but knowing stance everyone 'knew' of the five men's fate was decisive. Mogul Brianbacks had to be dead.

They would not notice the loss of Dragon's Horde for two years, assuming it to be amongst the destruction of a 'stray' chunk of rock jettisoned from Nessus Prime which completely obliterated the forms of Bunker 45 and Elapse.

The one thing above all that the camera would not notice were the silent streams of tears Marie had for her mentor's death, nor the downfall of her union with Kent due to his overeager attitude to the man's death.

The Spartan faction mourned the death of it's second supreme leader, and the man who had pulled them through almost 300 years of dominance over the other factions.

In the aftermath, things returned to normal as best they could. Marie was appointed as the Director of Space Programs and threw her heart into reconstructing the Neo Dragon's Horde. Eric Brianbacks had his first child with Alia, they named the child Mogul, after his recently dead grandfather.

The state funeral for the death of the five men, having combined Mogul's funeral with the other four became known as the Second Death in Space. The first had been the assassination of Captain Garland, captain of the U.N. Unity.

Now no one noticed the slippery form of 30 people disappearing from the grid work in the unharmed Dragon's Horde. Mogul had found the path he was used to.

* * *

_Year 2499_

In just 29 years time, things had changed drastically once again. Marie, as the Director of Space Programs now headed the terraforming effort of Alpha Rhea to give it an atmosphere. The effect of which would be enormous to space development. The spatial city of Neo Dragon's Horde was an immense success, hosting over 50,000 people. It was in fact much larger than the original Dragon's Horde.

The 29 year old Mogul Brianbacks, the grandson of the 1,103 year old Mogul Brianbacks, was finishing his degree in politics and command. He was in other words being groomed to take over his father's place in 100-150 years time. The public viewed the ascension of the supreme leader throne in the Spartan culture as almost natural now. Corazon Santiago Brianbacks may not have ever planned on such a thing being done, but her death and her following successors were already setting the trend. Eric Brianbacks was 105 years old, much younger than his wife who was at 178 years old. However the average life expectancy on Chiron was only 190 years old, due to several hundred years of close infighting as well as fighting with the mind worms.

Alia unfortunately passed in the same year, only just in time to give birth to the second child of her union with her husband, Eric Brianbacks. The second child was named after her de facto grandmother, Marie. Marie the infant would come to witness much in her lifetime, but that is another story altogether.

With the passing of Alia Brianbacks, it seemed that the only legitimate powers that existed laid square between Eric Brianbacks and his political rival, Deidre Skye. The rivalry was a natural extension of the rivalry that had existed between Corazon Santiago and Deidre, but it gave the much older Deidre an advantage that was barely equaled due to the aid of Marie the 164 year old.

In fact, the political arena was filled with strife between Eric and Deidre. The two of them naturally clashed head first as if they were goats competing over the same female. They could not seem to mix politely together, it was a growing concern to the much smaller University faction which feared being caught in between the two growing hostile factions.

It is in this year that that hostilities actually ceased completely due to the threat of something only Marie had ever heard of, The Eye of the Dragon.

During a World Council between between Deidre, Eric, and the elected Provost, who served for only ten years at a time, history was repeated. Three robotic figures walked in, the leading figure in a colonel's uniform. But it was a strange green/pink color scheme that none of the heads of state recognized. The words that echoed in the room through the robotic voice resounded off of a similar event that had happened in 2474 in another universe.

_"_"I have a special bulletin to bring forth to all of you, representatives of your obvious and most prestigious of factions. 10,000 of your citizens, have become tired of your gallivanting ways, and have declared Independence. This eighth faction, has decided to call itself, Eye of the Dragon, or the Dragonites. This is not a matter for the council to decide if it should be allowed, it has already taken place. Thank you," the robotic voice declared.

No one moved a muscle, thinking this was a joke. Only one face, who just happened to be there for a presentation that day, was etched in horror and an odd mix of hope.

The face metamorphosed, with the cyborg technology of molding faces into a face that each one intimately recognized. The never-aging face of Mogul Brianbacks, the 1,103 year old man whom each one of them knew well.

The eyes for a time seemed to be adjusting before they opened to reveal horrible blank white eyes. The face twisted as if running a diagnostics test, and the room remained quiet. Was this the personality of Mogul Brianbacks in the cybernetic system coming back to life?

The eyes did seem to move and yet a faint red hue glowed where the iris should be as the face passively looked at each face. "This is not a hoax. This is not a jinx, or fate, or anything that I know of. This is a prerecorded message, specifically remembered to having been taken place the mission year 2474. It was pronounced to seven faction leaders who stood squabbling over their time in the complacency of the late 25th century."

The peculiar faces of the room seemed stuck in their perplexed state, even as the cyborg continued with Mogul's face. "It was I, Mogul Brianbacks, the cook stowaway aboard the U.N. Unity who had this pronounced even while construction plans were taking place on the Isle of Dexamenus. What resulted there after was chaos. The Peacekeepers were split in two, the Gaians and the Spartans joined after a couple of centuries, and the little tyrant, Eric Brianbacks was born."

The face seemed to pause as if in thought as the eyes searched for the face of it's son, Eric Brianbacks. "My son, in another time you were only five years old when I died. You had been placed on Alpha Rhea and commanded the last of the human race for over 500 years before you were promptly executed for being a tyrant...too much like your father and mother...the people would say. In that time line, the human race was nearly completely destroyed by my advanced state of warfare and Project Betty. One hundred meter long mind worms that wiped out the Western, Central, Northern, and Eastern continents before making it's way to the Isle of Dexamenus as a horde."

A soft, demented smile developed on Mogul's face. "I was ultimately killed by my wife, Lady Deidre Skye Brianbacks after her connection with _planet_ caused her to go insane in jealousy after Eric Brianbacks was born with my second wife, Corazon Santiago Brianbacks. Ever wonder why I steered clear of you Deidre, in this time line? My last moment in my former life, seeing the one I had loved aim the antique gun for my head and then nothing more."

Some confused faces were beginning to panic. "To this world council I announce the exact same thing with minor nuances. I have 30 men under my wing and we command over 40,000 drones. Our exact location is something only one of you has ever truly seen. There we shall build up and remain independent. I do not wish to hear from or see any of you with a sole exception granted to one." They eyes flickered over to Marie and fired an invisible beam of energy at her before looking back over to the center of the room within the space of a nanosecond. None caught it, but Marie felt the burst of heat, around her heart. So he meant her did he?

"Attempts to dissuade or destroy this fourth faction will be met with equal hostilities. While I may personally owe a great deal to the Spartans and look upon them fondly as the children of my invention, I will not be dissuaded." The room was beginning to breathe again when it wrapped itself up.

"I believe that is all...oh...and Deidre?" the face swiveled to hers, expecting a response. It indeed waited for a full three minutes before Deidre finally responded, slightly irritated and slightly confused.

"What is it...Mogul?" Deidre called out warily, eying the cyborg with distaste. Her resolute nature was met with a gasp from Marie who recognized what this was developing into. She even tried to shout and warn the guards but was not fast enough to beat Mogul.

Even as she was standing up to scream Mogul spoke calmly. "This is revenge...bitch." The cyborg's hand raised with an antique pistol in hand and three bullets flew fast into Deidre's head. She was dead upon impact. The deafening silence of the room was replaced with the gunfire between the guards and the cyborgs. This gun fight dissolved as the heads of state made it out of the room safely and the cyborgs simply self-destructed, taking the some 25 guards with them.

* * *

After an hour had passed and the room had been cleared, the world council sat once more with an interim supreme leader sitting in for the dead Gaian supreme leader. The three young persons, all younger than 170 years old, looked at each other grimly. They had not expected this. The original faction leaders were now forever out of the ring.

Yang, Morgan, Miriam, and Zakharov lay beneath Spartan HQ in punishment spheres, forever lost to the world in any of their original charismatic leadership. Corazon had been assassinated. Lal had died at the end of the Cold War due to an accidental Planet Buster. And now the last of the first generation leaders was assassinated once more, for...revenge? The story that the cyborgian face had presented to them sounded fanciful, but explained nothing. Mogul had died...but was not dead?

The only second generation leader had been Mogul himself, and though not charismatic, he was and probably always would be respected for the advancements he had made under the Spartan flag. The three third generation leaders that now sat looking at one another for help in this spiraling situation were relieved when Marie came forth from her position and looked at her 'son' for permission to speak.

Upon receiving it she spoke with her confident voice. "The story Mogul presents is not untrue. I heard the same account from in much greater detail during his years as my mentor. While neither of us are sure of the mechanics behind his movement between universes, the fact remains that the Mogul we were used to in the first part of the mission years here on Chiron is essentially not the same as the one who lived in another universe. A parallel universe. He once stood to conquer the entire planet and feels no qualms with the fact that he did not conquer this Chiron. I believe that he's actually happy that Eric succeeded him in a manner his previous Eric did not follow. The grandchildren of Mogul in the other universe had lost all of the original prowess that we have witnessed with the Mogul here, with us."

Taking a moment to catch her breath, Marie was no longer intimidated with the looks she was receiving from the entire room. Not looks of disgust, or denial. Just apt attention. "I know it is difficult to believe, but Mogul has the experiences of a man just over 1,100 years. He's died once, and I don't know what happened on Alpha Rhea this time around but he's at _Earth_ now." She spoke the word as if it were a mystical land, and to them it was. No one on Chiron or it's nearby space remembered Earth anymore. All of them had been born on Chiron, beneath Alpha Proxima and Alpha Centuari B. The land of Earth was well reviewed, but none just what the United States had looked like. How the Chinese were radically different from the Soviets. They had never seen any of this, only heard of it in history and folklore.

Pausing to let the idea sink in she explained herself, "he said that only one of us had ever seen the place he was at, Earth. The only one of us who had ever been somewhere completely different was Deidre. Specifically in Great Britain. Mogul Brianback is somewhere in Europe on _Earth_." She couldn't help herself from whispering the last of the sentence. Earth, her lover was so far away from her now but offering her the chance to join him. But how?

She rubbed her forehead as if warding off a headache. "The only part that doesn't make sense is the person he's offered to join him. Without some sort of sign it could be myself, Eric, or even an unknown affiliate of Mogul's in this room."

The room exploded into a chipper of noise, each person trying to discern who it had been that had been given the opportunity. Something in the way Eric looked at Marie, as if trying to decide if she had been given the opportunity when he had not...it strangled her heart. Eric seemed ultimately pleased that his father was alive and Deidre was dead. How he was the son of Corazon, it stuck out so obviously in times like these. How similar they were to one another.

No one seemed able to quiet the room, not even the stand-in guards. None of the heads of state offered any help, instead they beckoned Marie to follow them out while the world council continued to bicker.

The four moved quickly and quietly through the halls as guards of the world council organization scattered through the halls as if preparing to end a riot...which was very possible to occur. This news was the biggest news to ever hit the planet since Corazon's death. It came so unexpectedly.

When the four had made it into a silenced room they each sat at a side of a square table. A meeting room developed for the lower end of the upper peons, as they were described.

One one side sat Eric, his face split between joy, curiosity, and an almost stoic look slowly covering those emotions up. He sat in the black uniform decorated to the supreme leader of the Spartan faction. It didn't hurt he was still mourning the death of his wife.

To his right sat Marie, her East Asian appearance not at all marred by emotion or complexion. She sat ready for the meeting, basking in the silence. She was a slightly demeaned black uniform, with epaulets denoting her the rank of Director of the Space Programs.

To her right sat Yugra Chans. Yugra was the interim supreme leader for the Gaian faction since Deidre had died not so long ago. She'd been born a Hive denizen, and yet now stood as one of the four heads who would decide Chiron reaction to Mogul's independence. She was a flowery green dress much like most Gaian empaths.

To her right sat Yzale. He had no last name, never having been assigned one. He had been a college drop-out in the University who had been recognized by Zakharov as one of the most brilliant minds he'd ever met. He was been the Vice-Provost of Scientific Projects until he ran for the presidency 2474 and was in the middle of his third term now. He had taken off his lab coat and wore a series of stabilizing mechanisms since his body was due to die off soon, and he would follow with it. He planned to finish off his presidency term however.

Yzale began the talk, "so the biggest question becomes how do we react? Together or Independently?" His question was driving at the core of this talk. 'Do we unite against him, unite against him separately, unite with him, or unite with him separately.'

Eric nodded his head as the stoic mask slipped over completely. "I vote in favor of a combined effort no matter how deal with the situation." He was leaning in not killing his father, but made it clear he would if the need called him to.

Marie shook her head on the other hand, "If it were up to me I'd find out his motives first. He had to have staged his death to escape so completely. The accident on Alpha Rhea was no accident." She was also very torn, but more so. Did she want to leave and join her love? Kent, the bothersome boy had been nothing in comparison. He had actually died in 2474, when she thought about it. Another seemingly accidental thing...or...what?

Yugra was the only livid face at the table. "The Gaians will pursue Moguls' destruction at whatever means necessary. His blatant attack on Deidre was nothing more than despicable. She would have called upon a coalition of forces to hunt and destroy the Monster," as Mogul had been nicknamed during his years as supreme leader of the Spartans, "and succeeded!" Yugra's eyes were wide with anger. They seemed a little bloodshot even, perhaps from crying.

Marie butted her way into the borderline hysterical lecture from Yugra, "and yet...Mogul has had and still has serious issues with Deidre. Her death has destroyed the growing tensions between the Spartan and Gaian factions, as the main instigator of that tension."

Marie's words were scoffed at from Yugra. "You only seek your mate like a bitch in heat." The venom in those words broke Eric's calm demeanor.

"You WILL behave yourself in front of mother you tree-hugging whore or I will have your head on a pike and watch the gardens of Cheribus burn in satisfaction." Eric's words were not idle threats. The Gaians would stand no chance of defending themselves, even with University intervention on their behest. Yugra immediately blew steam from her mouth and sat quietly.

Taking the pregnant pause to be his opportunity, Yzale spoke up from his place at the table, "the ultimate decision comes down to Spartan action, as they are the only ones with spatial capabilities." This reflection made three at the table turn to look at Eric. It depended on how Eric reacted to his father's move which was loaded with information, plot, and mystery.

This developed into another pregnant pause as the time dragged on and Eric could not make up his mind. That was...until Marie patted his knee beneath the table and he looked up into three pairs of eyes with his answer.

"We unite for the final action, no matter what it is. As separate factions we stand no chance against my father. We will either open our arms to him as a single faction, or extend our spear at him as a single faction. We shall become a single faction," he paused for highlighting the moment, "the Human Spectrum."

**(Story)**

**AN: November 22nd, 2011: Oh my god that took forever! It is now almost three in the morning and I'm still going. That is amazing in my personal opinion! I mean, considering the fact that I could also...you know...actually be _reading_ some fanfiction and not working my brain so goddamn hard this has been a really amazing continuance of work that has yet to be matched since I wrote the world that I included in my story _The Tale of Boredom to Sleepdom_ which most people hated. I let the flames slide off my back because frankly, if you don't like a story I don't mind hearing it, but without constructive criticism it's just amusing to watch.**

**Have I told you guys about my story _Combined Tails _(I almost wrote _Tailed Combines_ in a moment of dyslexia)? It's an amazing story which I'm taking from the middle of the first disc in Final Fantasy IX all the way to the end and possibly beyond! It's already 17,000 words which is amazing for me (as you can well see from my profile).**

**I also have good news for people who have requested stuff on such stories as _Memoirs of a Time Traveler_ and _The End_. I am writing down ideas for other stories that Mogul can leave in his journal (can't say more since _Memoirs of a Time Traveler_ is technically the sequel to this story), and I am also grounding out ideas for continuing chapters in _The End_ which I'm thinking RMcD94 will enjoy.**

**Anyway, please leave a review and I will continue to write! I love reviews so much I shall plague you with more of my writing! O.O  
**


	4. The Oort Test

**AN: I do not own any part of the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri universe except the crazy ideas I may write about for your viewing pleasure.**

**(Story)**

_Year 2510_

As one of the most intelligent men alive, Mogul had to have known that his 'little' act of revenge would only blow up in his face if he desired isolation from his brethren on Chiron. No...at this point they were more of his children. Yes...his children. And for his children he would take them to the gates of heaven as he had once climbed alone. He would make them transcend.

From the shadows of his personal room at Dragonium Mogul gave out a brief little chuckle. "How far would you go to raise an infant with 700,000 voices? A beast which destroyed itself on the verge of ten billion voices."

* * *

On Chiron the three leaders plus one met in the privacy of their meeting chamber now. With the shift in human interaction, things had changed into a federation like Eric the I had proposed at the end of the Cold War. The Spartans were still the Spartans. The Gaians were still the Gaians. The Universitarians were still the Universitarians. But altogether they were also part of the Human Spectrum. They vowed to never war with one another. Each put their efforts for what the Human Spectrum needed.

Eric Brianbacks, the third supreme leader of the Spartan faction stood as the mightiest of the three powers that made up the Human Spectrum. Spectrumites in essence followed his orders. Just as the Dragonites followed Mogul's orders.

Marie, the surrogate mother to Eric Brianbacks, was still the Director of Space Programs. However the Space Programs had been shifted over to the Spectrumite control. It now housed all three factions in it's territory. All of space was to be made of direct Spectrumite control. All inhabited planets and moons would have direct territories for all three factions and then all of it would follow Spectrumite command.

Yzale had died in 2504, just as his term ended. Now Maurice Sculm held the supreme leadership of the University. He was a very open man, not at all like his librarian brethren. Yet there was more to Maurice than met the eye. In specific, green and pink stripes underneath the white suit he wore.

Lastly, Yugra Chans had been ousted as a supreme leader for being too harsh. Not nearly as peaceful a person as Deidre had been. Thus Kazak Chans, the brother of Yugra had been elected as the supreme leader for life. A dark man who'd seen too many wars, and yet had an inner tranquility. Not to mention green and pink stripes.

The four leaders had to settle their differences and work together if they hoped to check the budding powers of the Dragonites. A power they had what amounted to folklore to work against. This meeting was no less than the others.

Each sat their square table and upon nodding to each person stood up. Collectively they spoke, "**together for better or for worse we call this meeting into order.**"

Three sat down whilst Marie continued to stand, indicating her business was emergent. Each gave her their attention, one eager for the news based upon it's outcome for the Spectrumites. Two eager for the news based upon it's outcome for the Dragonites.

Clearing her throat the 175 year old woman felt the aches of longevity. Longevity not only prolonged the connection between body and soul, it stretched the soul thin. The art had yet to be perfected. Of course...there was no telling what Mogul had over them in the terms of technology. "Based upon the _lore_ we are working with, a few questions come to mind." Marie's voice always held their attention, for different reasons, as she had grown from the mousy assistant of the once famous now _infamous_ Mogul Brianbacks.

"Mogul suffers from duality." Marie's expectation of a question came soon enough from Kazak.

"What is this 'duality' you speak of Madame Director?" Kazak's voice had a booming quality to it despite his soft-spoken nature.

"Duality is something just a little less than schizophrenia. Mogul suffers from the compulsion to move in two different directions constantly pulling away from one another. It's partly because he seems to be a time traveler, but if it's caused by that, that raises the question of why he suffered from it in another life time."

"After an analysis was reexamined, given to us courtesy of the Spartan Imperial Diagnostics, we found several such splitting pieces." She let the words sink in before moving on. "We believe that Mogul has traveled across the spans of time before, several times in fact. For what original purpose we're not sure, but something has set him in a tumultuous path constantly moving backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards till he reaches the flame of time and burns in paradox. Eventually his body will revolt for each traveling experience and tear itself apart. In short, each self battles with another self while the original time traveler dominates for the moment."

"In short, the darker selves we see of Mogul are past experiences, times like his previous life which he remembers dieing, for what we believe to be, the first time. The darker selves are gaining dominance. Who is to say that Mogul will not one day turn up in a time and completely destroy mankind or the universe? The Universal Laws prove that he will be washed away if he creates a paradox and time will readjust itself. We must prevent this."

She waits on bated breath for rebuttal but it does not come. Breathing shallowly, she continues, "What we need to do is to contain Mogul, discern his entire ailment, and then correct it appropriately. The doing of that however, will be more than difficult."

Moving on to more detailed matters she calms herself, "The initial pictures that managed to make it back tell a dark story. Drones by the hundreds of thousands are constructing a constant improvement to Earth's surface. A design of which was barely sampled before the unit was eradicated. Mogul's construction extends from 400 meters above ground to five kilometers below ground. This series of shafts and towers are being connected, moved, reworked into a large construction much like the western and central continents. A total population of 500,000 drones seem to be at constant work with more being cloned everyday."

It was indeed a grim picture. "The initial pictures also show that this construct extends from the British Isles, to Scandinavia, to Western and Central Europe. No central headquarters was detected, but it's believed to be on the island of Britain." A holographic image of Europe shows a dark three dimensional construct that overran much of the continent.

"What is further mysterious is that 30 names are mentioned as the apostles of the Dragonites but only 28 seem to be actively governing the Dragonite construct. Two are unaccounted for, which raises several more questions to which we do not have the answer."

"The whereabouts of Mogul himself is even more difficult to discern with the suggestion of constructs appearing on the Moon, Mars, and the Jovian moons as well."

Marie, at long last sat down, exhausted from all she had had to report from her side of things.

The other three leaders contemplated over the information with earnest thought. Kazak seemed, more so than the others, interested in the new information.

"What is the rate of acceleration in this construction? How fast is it growing?" He was nearly salivating at the prospect that his master was closer to standing at the heavenly gate of transcendence. Not this beyond physical form idiocy that seemed to be so appealing to the drones.

Marie bent her head down, exposing soft pale skin, the image of a woman from space with very little active exposure to the sun. "It seems that the drones on Earth have the highest concentration and build a total of four cubic kilometers per two days. The growth of the population is unknown." Her voice sounded exasperated. It came with little surprise that they all were...or appeared to be. Mogul had piles and piles of information on them from system management to favorite bedtime story. What he did not know, they found, he was actively searching for with hidden agents, both electronic and human.

There was plenty of great minds hammering at several problems they faced, and only one Mogul and his apostles (governors). That made it 31 minds versus 40,000. Yet they were on the losing side thus far.

Eric cleared his voice and stood, indicating his own business, "the Spartan faction has dug up the remnants of Mogul's former life searching for clues. The only data we can find is a disk labeled Project Betty. It's encrypted. The damnedest thing is that it keeps changing. The code and cipher alike continually change. As for the language, it matches none in the archives but closely resembles Chinese pictograph." Nodding their heads, that sounded slightly bitter coming from Eric. It would be no small part of irony if Mogul had written a code in Chinese pictograph as it's equivalent in Standard, seeing as the only three people who even knew how to translate the language were now no longer on Chiron. Two of them were, but not. Yang and Zakharov had both been placed in the punishment sphere by Mogul himself, bound for eternity of pain till the sense of self destroyed itself in the attempt to rid itself of conscious pain. Yet, as the sphere was designed to do, that did not prevent the inhuman howls of agony from wailing deep in the dark recesses of Spartan HQ.

How many more would Mogul claim. What did he seek? Why did he desire it?

The only answer they knew had arrived to them shortly after the ousting of Yugra Chans.

* * *

_Year 2503_

_Flashback_

_Marie, in the same room, stood up to show she had emergent information. Only three people were at the table today, Yugra's strange behavior had declared her mentally unfit and thus her replacement had yet to arrive, Gaian political reaction being mixed._

_"After a good deal of research and personal reflection, I have discovered the why to everything. Let us examine what we know." Marie of seven years prior had short black hair, shining as it always did. Still a somewhat mousy woman who'd ever so prefer to researching the edges of human existence and knowledge._

_"We know that Mogul once attempted to unite mankind through a series of Vendetta's that became known as the War of the Roses after Peacekeeper, Hive, and Gaian individual vendetta's culminated into a strengthened and enlightened Eye of the Dragon. These vendetta's ended however with Peacekeeper civil war which halted Mogul's plans to gain power through attrition. At the end of the War of the Roses, he revealed himself to the world ending only part of the enigma known as 'Eye of the Dragon'."_

_Marie shouldered herself up for the next part. "We also know that this Civil War eventually ended with the Spartans and Universitarians losing a good portion of the overall power that had made them the leading powers on Chiron. It is in the afterwards that we become hazy with detail." Cracking her finger joints in a bad habit of nervousness, Marie continued._

_"Mogul himself expressed a deep unknowing as to how Project Betty ended up in the Forbidden Zone of the western continent. The resulting panic caused the largest united effort since Project Unity itself. The aftermath however, was disastrous. Dragonite denizens were killed in an accident when a flash of panic arose over the awakening of a Betty, a mind worm over 100 meters in length. The Betty was killed and figured to be an early riser. But the damage had been done. 2,000 Dragonites in the ditches had been drowned to death. The resulting opportunity to pursue his original target, Deidre Skye, resulted in Dragonite rebellion and declaring themselves free of World Council rule. The resulting war formed a new unit of collected factions against Mogul. They waged war until the threat of a collapse in civilization had these factions asking for peace terms, and Mogul's response was Deidre Skye." Marie seemed to hold a little contempt and jealousy of the woman._

_"However, as the end of days for man seemed to approach closer and closer with the release of Project Betty by Deidre's planet-devoured mind, Mogul was working upon a construct which would rocket mankind back towards Earth like a scolded teenager who had to return to the corner and lick his wounds."_

_"Mogul was stopped only by a direct confrontation by Project Betty and an evolved version of locusts of Chiron, not to mention the antique bullet Deidre put in between his eyes." Marie seemed appalled by the image, her care for him being obvious._

_"During his final meeting with his generals and governors he said, 'we reach for the heavens my friends, in these dire days. We reach for heaven's gate itself and seek to put humanity from the pits of near extinction.' What he had left unsaid was that a colony on Alpha Rhea was preparing to keep a direct eye on the planet in case of new changes on Chiron."_

* * *

These were the important details they needed. The information that would release them from the bonds of their unknowing. Much as the secrets of the human brain had sparked the radically different society here on Chiron during the initial mission years, the secrets of Mogul would revolutionize their war against what he had become.

* * *

_Year 2540_

Now, it was in the year 2540 that the first fleet of the Human Spectrum would be making it's way into the Solar System and discover how far their charismatic leader had gone. For Mogul was the leader of the most powerful human faction in all of the universe. Of this they were sure.

None of the leaders could risk being a part of the first wave. The four Alpha Class Cruisers were 80 meters long and held a barrage of sensory equipment with a payload or two of planet busters for their foray into the Solar System.

Leading the charge in the S.S. (Spectrumite Ship) Isle of Hope held the title of flag ship, and with little doubt as to why. An additional 20 meters long, it was an enhanced Alpha Class Cruiser. It also held three turrets of shard blasters, some of the hard line stuff that made the chaos users of two centuries back quiver in fear.

Commodore Yantz from the helm had a view of Pluto and it's fellow orbiting body, Charon. He specifically avoided it for fear of a Dragonite base. So they were stalled, well outside it's gravity, probing it deeply in the dim rays of Sol...their birth sun. Their ancestors looked up to this star and now they looked at it as well...in fear. Here was their past. Their special dark past. They as individuals may have born under the centaur, but the centaur held not nearly the power of the eye in heaven.

"Commodore, we're picking up a strange transmission from Pluto. It's in diplomatic code..." one of the helmsmen said from in front of Yantz. He was vaguely reminded of Star Trek, a scientific fictional idea of the past. Earth's past no less.

"Put it through Kinsly." Yantz' stubble covered face looked rogue enough to pass himself off as a lumberjack. The burly body didn't hurt the image.

On the screen before them, they expected some dark image. They expected huddling masses and fire that was ready to purge them, coming in droves from the darkness.

What they saw instead was no less than their charismatic leader of old, Mogul Yarzel Brianbacks himself. His face was exactly as they remembered it, brooding and serious with a wit only a genuis could hold.

"Welcome to the domain of the Dragonites my fellow humans." His eyes seemed to be coy. "You have traveled a journey seldom taken thus far, a journey of space so vast it took your ancestors, more than likely over eight generations back, 40 years to make. You made it in two. Oh yes...I've kept my eye on you, darlings." He used a slang term for children that he was sure they would not recognize till it was analyzed by his _darling_ Marie.

The commodore took his turn to speak, "as intriguing as that is Brianbacks, you are wanted for the murder of Deidre Skye and the resulting death of fourteen guards." Yantz had a deep strong voice and the will to burn all of his men alive to get the job done, it's why he'd been selected. This first foray was to gather much needed Intel.

The image on the screen however laughed. "I'm afraid you don't realize your position Commodore Yantz."

If Yantz was surprised that Mogul Brianbacks, THE Mogul Brianbacks recognized him by face, then he didn't show it. "And..." he trailed off, "what exactly is such a delicate position we find ourselves in?" Yantz raised his chin in defiance.

Mogul had the nerve to chuckle. "Like all children, you have entered your test. You're stuck in a gravity well, even if you haven't realized it yet. I'm actually surprised you made it through the cloud. Didn't you find it surprising that there were no objects in the Oort cloud?" Mogul's voice was light.

Yantz' eyes grew wide as his men began to panic, only halting after he growled darkly. "You mean to say there are black holes surrounding this system?" Yantz scoffed openly at the notion. His eyes grew wide again as shouts sounded through out the ship as different alarms went off. Suddenly a grid work of the gravity wells appeared all around them.

Mogul was disappointed that his _darlings_ failed their first test to transcend.

Things were progressing fast. His defense of singularities could only delay his son and lo...he caught himself in the thought. Eric and Marie could only be delayed so long before they surmounted the traps and tests he lay before them. He would cross first, but who knew how soon after wards they would follow to the gate of heaven.

**(Story)**

**AN: November 22nd, 2011: Okay, it has been another hour and it is currently 4 in the morning. As in (4:00 AM). I'm tired. I'm going to bed and will do further updates later today. For now I know that my son will probably be waking up soon wanting to play for a few hours before he'll go back to bed and then I'll finally get a chance to rest. I probably should have gone to bed a few hours ago, but I'm feeling a feverish pitch burn in me as I steam roll through these edits. I hope you guys enjoy them. I'll be asking a familiar old jackass to go over them and tell me what he thinks. I might also ask a couple of the other guys I'm used to asking and see what they have to say.**

**As before I recommend that you try one of my other stories as well and see if you enjoy some of my other works.**

**As always, I advise that you review before I press the button which causes your computer terminal to devour your soul! ^^  
**


	5. 30 Guardians of Heaven

**AN: I do not own any part of the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri universe except the crazy ideas I may write about for your viewing pleasure.**

**Review Commentaries:**

**T-Bird:** As usual, your help is always a little odd. Thanks for the help.

**(Story)**

_Year 2560_

Mogul had seen far better attempts, to be sure. His _chosen_, as he had decided on calling them, were developing permanent bases outside his gravity well, heavily fortified spatial bases meant for war, not filling up with citizens.

Perusing the latest images from both outside, and inside, of the bases, he could feel the general way things moved about in them. There was top notch security. In fact, they seemed to have destroyed another eight of his agents. Those drones wouldn't miss their miserable factory lives anyway.

But this increase in security, Mogul took a moment to stroke his aging chin in wonder. If he was not mistaken, it resembled some of Marie's hypothetical work back when she was his assistant. Yet the resemblance was too uncanny. It was like looking at twins with the slightest of nuances. She and any other _chosen_ should know he'd know her work from that time period like the back of his hand.

The mental thought in mind, Mogul kept himself joyful by checking the back of his hand with a snobbish disdainful face and then gasping in surprise as if there was something he hadn't seen before. Snorting like every mentally aged old man should, Mogul let his fingers dance over the controls. He imagined if he had ever played that particular joke on Marie or his son, they wouldn't get it. Too Terran. There wasn't much about Chiron humor that resembled Terran humor, sometimes it made it odd to hold the simplest of conversations.

Looking over the diagnostics again he felt a truly malevolent grin spread across his face. "It won't be long now and the real fun shall begin." His voice cackling madly into the dark depths of Dragonium.

* * *

If it were possible for Eric to be any more confused than he already was, this might push him to that limit. His son, his dearest Mogul the II, had decided that his grandfather's logic far superior sense than his father's...and thus was rebelling. Not overly successfully, mind you. He was after all using a rather simple laser gun to singe his servants when they tried to attend to him.

Eric sat wearily at his own desk, much like his father was a few light years away. Who would've thought that parenting was so difficult? Half the time he simply wanted to strangle his son into oblivion. As if Mogul, the infamous Mogul, could ever have stepped onto the right path after his Corazon's death. A woman he'd never met but had to live up by the standards of. Frankly, the woman had set very high standards.

In her time, his mother had raised a pittance of trigger happy colonists into pro-active farmers, miners, guards, factory workers. She'd built something out of nearly nothing. His father, Mogul the Infamous or whatever blasted name you wished to give him by now, had taken that same rising star and threw fire to the flames constantly. 'A little improvement here...and a possible change in strategy here...you could try being a little easier in the negotiations next time...' All words he had of conversations between his father and mother. A family he'd sort of yet never truly had. Corazon Santiago Brianbacks and Mogul Brianbacks had had a secret romance that kept them working together for centuries.

Who was to say he could even match his father in the realm of women? His dearly departed Alia had been dead for so long. He couldn't help but see a few similarities between his father and himself. Both having lost their wife to something that sprung up on them suddenly. Both having to control a vast and powerful entity with enough power in it's right hand to wipe out the other members of the Spectrumites and still not have not done much but shed dead skin. Fact of the matter was, the other Spectrumite factions meant almost nothing in the grand scheme of this journey forward.

Allied troops consisted of 200,000 men. That was 35,000 men to act as the police of Chiron and her satellites along with 50,000 men in constructions building more and more spaceships for the growing armada.

The rest inhabited that space fleet. The Spectrumite Armada...or more appropriately named, the Spartan Armada. No allied troops in the armada were of another faction. Plainly put, space was controlled by the Spartan faction, end of story. They shared only the right to transport the other factions to other systems when the time came for colonization of new systems.

That didn't mean they weren't sending colonists out there. Oh no. Far from it. Five colonist ships were headed far away from the Solar System to continue mankind in the case of another Terran catastrophe. No one would be surprised if it ended all of their lives simply because that's what Earth seemed to do to humans. Not that it had stopped outside it's orbit.

Eric felt he'd finished his stack of paperwork when his surrogate mother stepped in, ever the same business woman. More professional than personal but dearly trying. She held her own stack of papers and it was all Eric could do to stop from moaning in disgust. Why did they still use papers?

Marie stoically walked forward and planted herself before her surrogate son. Only when her eyes came up and the sparkle within did it reveal the person within the husk of business she'd set herself in.

"I have two more urgent notes for you Eric." Her voice was held up, naturally wary of the security that was enforced within the room. That same security had been insisted upon by the Spectrumite Council for all faction leaders, but the Spartans were the ones running the show. It simply mattered more what Eric the Navigator, as he was being called, was doing than Kazak Chans.

Eric set aside his finished work and prepared himself for terrible news. Had his father, the infamous Mogul broken through their lines? Had his son, the rebellious Mogul, finally been detained by his own guards? Who could say.

With a rare smile in such a setting, Marie handed over a small portion of the papers and carefully arranged them before him. "These are the detailed schematics and trial runs for the battleship class Marxis. The S.S. Marxly proved to be not only faster than our standard and flagship cruisers, but also more sturdy and packing much more devastating power."

If what the paper, and his mother were saying was true, then the Marxly had made the round trip to the Solar System and back in three months. By their best technology before it took two years. That was still faster than the speed of light, jumping through pockets of space and forcing space to bend correctly so that they could make those jumps. But that system had flaws. It was a big energy consumer. Eight singularity engines just for the jump drive. That could power 40,000 Mark S Hovertanks with enough left over to still make a planet buster do a quarter of it's intended effect.

The new system apparently used only two singularity engines and could make much longer jumps. Nearly 90 billion kilometers. Make that several times a day and you had a 4.5 light year trip that took the Unity Mission 40 years, just a couple of months. This would greatly improve both the foreign soil establishment of colonies, as well as the armament of the line of defenders they had set up outside the Oort Cloud.

He'd seen the remnants of the first fleet. Tattered remains of clothing specifically kept from sinking into the gravity wells and then jettisoned towards Alpha Centauri. It had the logo they'd used for Yantz' commodoreship. The details of the first fleet and their ultimate end was kept top secret, no need to ruin morale.

Eagerly looking for even better news, Eric looked up from the files into his mother's face and saw, not for the first time, the struggle she was fighting through. Actively helping the people who would destroy her love if the need arose. It was something he struggled with himself, fighting against his own father. He'd felt it only once before, when he effectively ousted his father from the throne.

Marie laid out the next set of papers, which were filled with a long series of equations. She obviously didn't expect him to understand all of it and thus immediately began to fill him in. "This series of equations has proven to be the key in how we can navigate the Oort gravity well and make it well within the safe range of the solar system proper."

Bomb shell. He thought that was the right description at least. She had dropped on him a bomb shell. This news...it...it...would get them within firing range of Mogul's Dragonites.

* * *

_Year 2568_

Mogul had not been inactive the past eight years. He'd nearly broken through. He was almost there. But still...

His son and the gay pride committee, as he referred to the 'spectrumites', had been very busy. They'd discovered the Wervan Effect. It was one of the many things he was intermingling with all of his various parts that were forming the whole.

They'd have plenty of questions when they crossed the second challenge, the Dragonites. And he would have answers...provided they made it past his lovely Dragonites.

Snickering the 1,172 year old man felt as if the gods themselves were cackling in glee. As if they missed his underhanded plot against them.

* * *

For the first time ever, the three leaders were on the battlefront. Though all was silent through the gravity well, once they turned the keys, so to speak, and charged through...things would change drastically.

The three leaders had been prepared to commit to a last meeting. When two of the leaders couldn't be found, their dead guards and a fleeing transport was all it took to set the minds of the chain of space fortresses, space docks, and spaceship builders that Mogul the Infamous had kidnapped the 'peons' to turn this into a father/son duel. It further cemented in their mind that he had lost all of what he was that had made them so proud to call him their own.

The klaxons were the first warning that the impending invasion would begin. In all of the Spectrumite facilities lined up outside the solar system, three high bleets that died off got everyone to their stations. Things were intense here on the front lines without any action. Any moment could mean action. Especially when they sat outside a giant of a fortress.

Even drills had proven useful in order to catch the stray double agent. But the blood began to race after a half an hour and the next warning came on, two bleets of the klaxon.

Now every man and woman made themselves useful in turning on the assembly of the armada they had formed. Over 340 battleship Marxis class ships, and just shy of 900 cruisers prepped and locked themselves down for the impending invasion.

For that time, when the last man had gotten through his war time preparations, the silence is what came. Across the data net with home. Across the channels between each of the ships. The massed 420,000 men and women were ready to fight as their blood pounded in their years together. As the silence of space and adventure thrummed in their hearts. As the primitive man within awoke at the sound of the familiar drum set arrayed before it, and instead of a wooden or stone gate, 420,000 pairs of eyes saw the vastness of space and knew it for what it was. No man's land. To cross meant no quarter. To fail meant no return.

Mogul the II, son of Eric the Navigator, was torn at the moment, having heard the special announcement that the invasion was commencing. He was lecturing between his two younger siblings, Eric the II, and Marie the II. He didn't even want to know why his mother had insisted on naming her children after people who already existed.

The twins, Eric and Marie, stopped only briefly to worry together before bickering once more. Their lives were truly blessed thus far.

Marie sat in her own little throne. She would be the brains behind her son's command. If she advised him, he would split second agree or not. They'd practiced long enough to get quite proficient at it. Her room was dark, only lightened by the displays surrounding her within the depths of Neo Dragon's Horde.

30 souls from their section of the Dragonite Armada prepared themselves for the onslaught that was about to be unleashed. Their faces hidden within the depths they had resorted to in order to disguise themselves.

940,000 souls on Chiron and Alpha Rhea eagerly awaited the news that would be flowing through. Someone had decided it would be a good incentive for the troops if their families could hear about them and read about them as things happened through the data links. To a degree, it made sense. You didn't really want your loved ones to suddenly read that your ship had exploded or crashed into another ship followed by the '...' of loading the details only to finish off with 'no survivors'. So you either opted out of the campaign, which would not only disgrace you but also your friends and family...or you charged through and made for certain that you did not die. There would be casualties, but they were going to do better than their best to keep themselves from dieing.

And one soul was there...but wasn't.

* * *

When the final klaxon, just a shrill bleet sounded out, over 1,200 space ships began their trawl forward, cautiously. From behind them the collected facilities activated the project which would deactivate the singularities surrounding the solar system. This set off a chain of events that they could now witness, without the pitch blackness of a black hole shrouding their view. The field of black holes had been set up to keep the entire solar system fixed. Once the initial defense was deactivated, it set the bodies back into motion, triggering the beginning of a chain of events.

With a vast array of diagnostic equipment, Marie was able to analyze and determine the interior workings of the solar system under Dragonite rule. That is not to say she was working alone. 13,000 other brilliants minds were reviewing the exact same material, looking for what the others might miss.

With this system, they were able to give the initial report to Eric so he could make his decision. Eric could hear his mother speaking to him through the device implanted in his ear. "The major bodies of the solar system have been linked into a colossal network of constructions. All of the pieces are connected and thus far no ships of any kind are detectable."

Considering this information, Eric spoke swiftly and with a superior voice, "3rd division is to lightly assault the Plutonian section of the Dragonite construct, do not engage hastily."

A block of the Spectrumite Armada broke off and began to probe towards what they could only assume used to be Pluto and Charon, now just a black construct. Once the cruisers were within range, they deployed over 20,000 fighters to engage the construct. What met them looked like a laser show. The fighters, and even cruisers, had to dodge a series of lasers that would bounce of even another laser. It was basic technology but it would damage them if they took too many hits. Eric's command to pull back came across swiftly. The cruisers pulled back and fighters pulled back as well.

"3rd division, I want the battleships to bombard that construction and then have the fighters reengage." Eric's voice felt sure of itself.

The world watched on as the 3rd division battleships charged up and unleashed a torrent of energy towards the Plutonian section of the construct and loud cheering whoops could be heard as the damage was continuously being assessed. It started off as minor, exterior damage. But then interior sections could be seen, and a few drones drifting out the wreckage. The command came for the battleships to cease and for the fighters to reengage.

The resulting commotion would be talked about for centuries to come. 50,000 black fighters _erupted_ from the Plutonian construct and engaged with the Spectrumite fighters and _swarmed _the cruisers behind them.

The instant firing of commands down the lines, had those on the home world worried. But their fighters seemed to be pulling through pretty well. The very few visuals provided for them showed beautiful but deadly show of colored lines and the warped outline of blasts they could not see.

The Spectrumites felt they had the upper hand in this battle until from the core branch that connected the Plutonian section to the rest has something slip off of it almost immediately the analysts agreed it was a super-sized spaceship.

"3rd division harden up the lines. 8th division move in and bombard that thing." Eric's voice had to maintain it's superior tones. He could not have morale sink this early in the battle. Therefore he was going to surge on the spaceship, feeling a certain amount of pride as it didn't take much for it to begin to bubble and explode, taking with it nearly 5,000 fighters.

With it's destruction though came words across the screen of Eric's bridge on the 1st division flagship and even the screens of every data link terminal.

"Two in the beginning, oh they did fall, to the might of the Sea Peoples who ravaged them all."

Confused by the message, the armada stalled trying to understand the message before Eric had had enough. "All divisions back into line, 3rd recall your fighters." When Eric had a moment to relax as they were headed for the next site for battle. It was whatever remained of Neptune.

"Do not be swayed or troubled by the poisonous tongue the Infamous man will say. Be it truth or lie, ignore his words."

* * *

There in the background, the Neptunian section could be spotted. Feeling more confident, Eric deployed his 12th division to bombard and then destroy the very large spaceship that detached itself from the shut down form of the Neptunian section. This time, lasers gave way to particle impactors. The result had the effect of taking out a few of the 12th division cruisers. A sad event in that it could have been prevented had they pulled back in time.

The message this time came across as, "Two more did fall and so it began, they did so rise the faster they ran."

* * *

The Uranian section had Gatling lasers, which forced the 7th division to come in and flank the entire structure to prevent terrible causalities. The 3rd division however suffered a crushing blow to five of it's 40 battleships.

Now the message came across as, "Another two did so fall by the might beyond the wall."

* * *

By the arrival at the Saturnian section, Eric had already commanded that the 10th and 11th divisions come in from both sides and storm the entire thing after the 9th division bombarded the structure quite thoroughly. The spaceship that detached itself this time raised up link to the flagship of the 1st division of the armada in diplomatic code.

The two faces that came to view were horrifying. Two of the leaders that had once led the Spectrumites, now decked out in pink and green on the bridge of the ship approaching.

Together they recited, "Two did fall, but in their fall came knowledge of it all."

Their transmission was ended by 'stray' fire from a few wing men of the 3rd division.

* * *

It was once they reached the Jovian section that things came to a halt. It felt as if it came out of nowhere when Eric breathed deeply and spoke, "All divisions halt advancement. All divisions are to remain aware while the commanders communicate."

The screen before him switched over to the face of 11 men and his mother on the far end as the main adviser. "We have an issue. This is becoming incredibly more complex and all of these initial forays are only serving to weaken us. Is there another way to the core of this monstrosity?"

Eyes of the 12 divisions turned to face of Marie and waited in baited breath for her answer. It took her a while to do so. "There is literally no other way at this point. The analysts are in agreement that the Dragonites have focused the entire construct into a straight, for the most part, line that follows a hallway of space. The traditional space around it simply does not exist anymore. Effectively, you're traveling through a tunnel without the proper space to turn around without exposing your rears to Dragonite fire."

11 voices screamed in frustration or sighed in annoyance. The 12 divisions of the Spectrumite...or apparently Spartan Armada faced a do or die situation. Even the drones were beginning to feel the atmosphere for what it was. 940,000 souls watching their every move, no chance of turning around, literally fighting for the ones back on home because they represented a good chunk of the human population. The atmosphere was very dark indeed.

"We have thus far faced an enemy which has shown increasing difficulty in dealing with," opened up the Admiral of the 2nd division. "If we are to defeat this enemy, we must expect what we can. The Oort cloud was nothing but a field of singularities, and the next defense is barbaric lasers? There is meaning to this devise that the Infamous has constructed."

The Admiral of the 10th division, the only woman amongst them, agreed, "We faced lasers, particle impactors, Gatling lasers, missiles...we can only expect that the..." her words failed her for a moment. "What is the adjective of Jupiter?"

The frank, off-topic question was met by silence. Silence until Marie's voice popped up in the background, "Jovian..." Almost expecting someone to mutter, 'know-it-all'.

"Okay, the _Jovian_ section should be detailed by chaos technology. Not exactly ancient but still an old piece of technology. The Martian section should hold fusion power then, and the Terran...would Earth hold the greatest or the simply the next in line?" The question arose from Earth being the center of this construct, but not exactly last on the list. This too was settled by Marie.

"Earth resides on the far side of Sol, a series of labyrinths connect the Venerean section and the Martian section."

This time the low mutter could be faintly heard on the screen and whomever it came from their form was not distinct to any of the other Admirals or the Supreme Leader.

Eric's voice cut in sharp, "back to the task at hand. That could entail that the Martian section would be armed with fusion, the Venerean would be armed with tachyon, the Mercurial section would be armed with plasma shards, and Sol itself or Earth is armed with singularities."

The increasing level of difficulty made things weary with fatigue. They had been diving through this madness for the past four hours. The 3rd division had lost 9,000 of it's 20,000 fighters. The 7th division had lost a quarter of it's cruisers. The 11th division had lost almost half of it's fighters and cruisers. While the 12th division and all others, had sustained little damage. However the 1st, 3rd, 7th, and 11th divisions formed the larger portion of the Armada. What remained was 150,000 fighters, 740 cruisers, and 280 battleships. 400,000 of the men remained alive and intact.

Their further contemplation was cut short by shrill klaxons bleeting loudly for all to hear and know of the approaching form of the Jovian section fighters.

"All fighters to the field!" Eric's voice rang out booming in the ears of everyone. "If they want a battle we shall show them our might. Spartans never turn their back on the enemy, or fear their own death!"

Within minutes the battle was over, and the Jovian section lay in ruin, bearing the fruit of their prize for them to hear and read.

"Two have now fallen, and half way you be, a third of six is three, so what would half of twenty be?"

"Half of twenty...a third of six?" Many of the men and women asked themselves. "What is this nonsense?"

* * *

By the time the Armada had reached Sol, things seemed to be desperate. The 6th division had not survived the Venerean section, completely wiped out. The figured they could hide behind the star before moving around it on the edges of their tunnel in existence to fight Earth.

Imagine their surprise when Sol swelled. The klaxons rang instantly and an automatic message, just as dandy as you might please read out, _'supernova calculated for a new star. Sol in the Solar System is expected to supernova in 5...4...3...2...1...'_

How do you protect yourself from such immense power? Something new altogether made sure the parts it didn't want...didn't have a means to protect itself.

"My lord! The 7th, 4th, 10th...most of the divisions have been wiped out!" A helmsman cried out to Eric the Navigator.

He took charge swiftly, "I want a full damage report. Marie! I want an explaination!"

The first to come was Marie, who recognized the attack for what it was. "That was the singularity power. Though it didn't quite match the total mass needed to become an actual singularity, with the reduced space...Sol was able to supernova. Your very survival is miraculous." Her voice, once reserving it's awe for only something Mogul could ever do, did not know how true that rang in that instant.

The helmsman followed, "The first division is all that remains my lord. We are but 30,000 of who journeyed into these murky depths." His voice was twisted with the bitter knowledge he had survived where hundreds of thousands had not. That was a difficult pill to swallow. The more difficult pill to swallow was the fact that as 30,000, they had to face what 260,000 had been weary of as a much more formidable force.

Eric sat in his chair for a long time thinking. And when at last the men had come to despair all, he spoke. "If we cannot storm them by the very ships we have built, then we can storm them by the bodies that we are made of."

Standing, ready to give his order, he could not afford to show weakness in this moment. His son might learn something from this...his successor. The boy who would likely be supreme leader within the next hour.

His uniform was the same black his mother and father had worn. He wore it now as the symbol for what they once stood for. Spartan dominance by aggressive means. His brow was his mother's and his father's. His blood was theirs. His hands were theirs. But now he would cut down one of his givers of life, let his blood run freely between his fingers, and let all men know that he would not bow down to even his own heart.

"All men, this is your final order." That ought to get their attention.

When he at last had every man's eyes on him, Eric spoke as if this were an epic adventure...and...well...it was really. They were going where no man had gone before. In a way...

"Every man worth his salt will land on Earth and subjugate the populace in order to quell this humane rebellion. We will strike hard. We will leave little to no room for mercy. We will all be down there doing our best to bring this era of war to an end in human history!" The end of his words crescendo-ed and was met by dreary looks and hoarse shouts. Another call and their faces looked gaunt, but their eyes were swimming in the madness of a man ready to all before he died. With little prompt, the remnants of the Spartan Armada made way to Earth. Their very first visit...to be birthed in the blood of thousands.

* * *

Deep within Dragonium, a room lay empty. A doorway silent. And more volumes than a man could read in his lifetime.

**(Story)**

**AN: November 24th, 2011: Hello! Thanks for continuing to bear with me as I make improvements on these stories. You should be ever so eager to read this story or some of my many others (as I write this you have 31 other options) including such titles as _Haremization_, _Tails Combined_, or _To __Be a Mountain Face_. Those genres are Harry Potter, Final Fantasy IX, and Naruto in that order. Let me know what you think and review!**

**REVIEW OR BE DESTROYED!**


	6. Stairs to Heaven

******AN: I do not own any part of the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri universe except the crazy ideas I may write about for your viewing pleasure.**

**(Story)**

_Year 2568_

_1st Year of Man United (1 MU)_

Earth stood in it's limited space, the entire rest of the spacial construction the Dragonites had organized had been destroyed. Crumbling in pockets of space behind the invading force of Spectrumites. Even the light of the sun, Sol, seemed to be somewhat fainter now, what remained of it that was. They were casting their own shadows on Earth now, just outside of it's reach.

The only photo there'd ever been of Earth had been taken by a man sailing away from it. The original Mogul Brianbacks, some eight or nine lifetimes ago. Back then, Earth had been where he'd been considered crazy. He was not worth the attention of his university because he questioned basic constants of the universe. He was not worth the attention of his parents because he was a mistake. A _third_. He was not worth the attention of his neighbors because he disturbed their little plots of land in order to make them beautiful, something they considered pretentious of the times, the 2040's.

But that would be revealed in time.

What mattered now was the strategy of the invading force. They'd eliminated 18 of the 30 Guardians, with two on each for Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, and then Sol itself. Nine multiplied by two was 18. That left 12 of the most brilliant minds and talents in all of mankind defending a much smaller plot of space.

Everything was dark without much left of Sol. Soon it would be pitch black. They were waiting for that. They would not be goaded into storming the unknown when that was the most obvious course of action.

Instead they waited over five tense hours as the light finally died down and the remnants of the 1st division prepared itself for the dive onto Earth to take Mogul into custody and bring him to answer for this entire war and separatist thought.

* * *

When the hours had let the light finally die off, in the eerie void of light, eight battleships and twenty cruisers sailed forth. The final trumpet had sounded. The call had rang out. In utter darkness and without a moment to think or act, these 28 ships full of 30,000 who would fight to the last man. They were 30,000 human beings. Separated no longer by nationality or ideology. Gender meant little. All that mattered was uniting man!

It was to this thought that these 30,000 stormed Earth, where hundreds of thousands of drones were prepared. The fight would be tooth and nail.

To maximize the chances of success, these 30,000 would storm straight into the where the city of Gloucester had been, where Deidre had lived during her years on Earth.

In fact, 25,000 actually landed. The other 5,000 hid behind buildings as they darted around in a protective unit, opening fire on the rapidly approaching masses of the Dragonites. They were doomed from the start.

The other 25,000 killed, tortured, and plowed through the heart of Dragonium for days it felt like. They had lost contact with the observational units outside of the Solar System. It could mean any numbers of things, but their death was the most unlikely.

The battle raged on, even long after the ground-shaking thunderous booms of the spaceships above them turned fainter, and fainter, and then gigantic shakes alerted them to their crashing destruction. They had no exit.

Corner a beast and even a wounded beast will be feral enough to kill the beast that is three times it's size.

The motivation to take every single Dragonite spurred on the weary army until in it's last moments, but a couple hundred left to tell the tale if they survived retreated into an otherwise plain room. It was when they secured their perimeter and Eric the Navigator made his way into the private chambers, that the door shut behind him and locked him inside.

Immediately wary, Eric called out but received no answer. Fearing for his men, Eric searched the room frantically for a means to escape when he spotted..._it_.

A light-blue visual that stood straight up in the air without a means to support it but arcane technology. The picture, was of his father, one of his more serious faces thrown onto the visage, and Eric was reminded of his childhood.

Feeling half a mind to smash the thing, he was surprised when the eight inch tall hologram held a hand, "Stop." It even commanded him. Eric was burned with both delight and disgust at the brilliance his father displayed from time to time. He had been _the_ man who showed him the delights of subverting the natural chaotic nature of the subatomic universe over to a more ordered and defined universe and how this system caused the infamous stasis-generators to be formed. He had seen photos of his father holding a rudimentary chaos gun back when particle impactors were considered the prime weapon of choice on the battlefield.

* * *

_Memory-_

_Eight year old Eric was attempting to steal away into his father's laboratory. The one in which he'd been discussing with mother for the past few weeks. Hushed words of Corazon and 'unethical knowledge' had been frequent in the conversations._

_Inside he had seen the amazing equipment. That was natural in a laboratory. It was the writing on the walls he was drawn to. There were complex equations written into nearly scribbles all over the walls. Concepts drawn as art that littered the ceiling. Hypotheses and ideas littering the floor and tables._

_He'd been so amazed he almost missed an odd picture. A picture of his father, his mother, and the Corazon woman they'd been speaking of for he was a Spartan...he knew who Corazon Santiago was. It was the odd way in which all three of them were looking at each other...he'd just had to ask his mother._

_That day, Eric had learned that alcohol made people do wild things together._

* * *

The hologram stood erect before seeming to dust itself off. "You are Eric Yazael Brianbacks, my son. You have only been once before and you lived for nearly 500 years before perishing under the weight of your own tyranny."

The figure seemed to be trying to take stock of how to say things, "I, on the other hand, was born once. I was born in a time of war and of tyranny. I was born in a time of a tribal man, where cities hurt surrounding cities, countries hurt surrounding countries, people on one side of the mountain hurt people on the other side of the mountain."

As if pausing for breath the hologram continued after a moment, "I snuck aboard the U.N. Unity as a worker, a mere drone. From there I proved my worth to the various officers who would make up the seven faction leaders on Chiron. I impressed all...but Captain Garland. He was thoroughly unimpressed with his cook and had me frozen with the other drones. So my face became forgotten for five years before I was unfrozen due to a need for manpower on the deck after several had to be frozen, pending trial. It was like no one even remembered me...and...to my everlasting shame...I activated the very first invention I ever thought of."

Looking somewhat ashamed, Mogul pressed on, "When I was a boy of 20, my father struck me down so fiercely after class that I was close to dying. In fear of another strike, only more fatal and severe, I researched and stole until I felt safe in employing a universal die. It essentially would roll if I ever died in order to bring me back. To successfully roll a higher number each time, and I'm paraphrasing the concept, meant I could survive. If the die could not pull on a greater amount of energy, represented by the number which was 'rolled', then I would die and all of the energy I had been storing up to stay alive would revert to balance itself out and destroy what gives life to those beyond death."

Eric looked...like he was constipated. He had never heard any of this before.

"Your old man was a lot of things, but chief among them was stupid and ignorant. He was as blind as the humans who created him, and as vile as their forefathers. He was Terran...and none but a Terran could understand and accept the brutality that came along as acceptable by the regularly devolving species that the Terrans were."

"It was at this time, because the die had been activated, that I could successfully kill Captain Garland. Yes. It was I who assassinated him. But he struck me with a mortal wound before his life blood had even poisoned him thoroughly yet. I fell gasping, striving to live. I made it all the way to my room before I died. There...in 2072...I died for the first time."

"If I could have changed things...I would have by now. But I forgot at first. The mind simply wouldn't accept it had died and everything reset itself to a living body now curled upon on the floor, rather than a dead young man drowning in his own pool of blood."

"So I went about my way in that second life. I found and married a respectable university woman after the colonization of Chiron. I lived a healthy 872 years, which meant I died in 2904. I died as the last Terran still alive on Chiron after the thirty-seven vendetta's claimed my fellow kin of the fruit. My brothers under an alien sky, rather than our children who lived under their only home sky."

"So yet again, I awoke to consciousness on a cold metal floor, figuring I had passed out from the smell of whiskey in the room. This third life, was far different. I had a faint inkling that I'd seen all of this before. So I migrated. I avoided the war zones and became entirely self-dependent. I had the knowledge on hand whenever I needed it thanks to my 2nd lifetime. In this way, I lived until 3201, a good 1,169 year life. However it was what I died of that burned in my retina even after I awoke once more."  
"I had died of the global shut down of relations between the seven factions. Where things had dissolved to the point that the Cold War of the late 20th century became a child's plaything in comparison. I could not survive that blast."

"So, having awoke into my fourth life and having the experience of a 2,081 year old, I tried a different approach. This time, I subverted the power base of Deidre Skye long before she fell from grace in Zakharov's mind. This time, I led the Gaians into a fully Terran way of life, minus the eco damage, and conquered my fair share of Chiron by 2347 when a united force concentrated man into a war I felt was far too familiar for comfort, and rightfully so. I died the following year. Nuclear winter, once more."

"Now things became more different. Into my fifth life I awoke and declared humanity not worth it. I ejected myself out into space with enough to keep myself stable as I jettisoned back towards Earth. There I arrived in time to see the last vestiges of the true Terrans wipe themselves out with a handful of pistols and some molten rubber. Disgusting sight to see 800 people die that way...the last of their kind."

"I revived a young girl, perhaps in her early 20's, named Lily and now how I cackled in madness at the delicious irony. As the last man and woman on Earth, I felt like Adam and his first wife...Lilith, the woman who would not submit."

"Indeed, Lily spent a good numbers of years in awe of me having come back to try and 'save' humanity from destroying itself. Then another set of year in awe of the technological advancements I made. In the end though, it turned out Lily was infertile. She had spent too rough a teenage life with the animals of her the nearby zoo. It had physically destroyed her ability to reproduce. Maddened, I crushed in a fit of anger and regretted it instantly. Now I was alone...in the year 2380. I spent a good 50 years just trying to forget other humans existed. It would've worked if I hadn't accidentally answered one of their attempts to contact Earth by playing jazz music while using several rotting corpses as a way to experiment on the effects of longevity in a much purer form."

"Trust me when I say, son, that you would not like the way we used to stay alive for centuries in my first few lifetimes."

"Regardless, a contingency from Chiron came and picked me up off of Earth and brought be back on trial for the death of Captain Garland. They claimed my fleeing was an admission of guilt. I was guilty, but not for the reasons they thought."

"So it was, I died again in 3011."

"Into my sixth life I ventured and tried the same thing...only now I openly supported Lily in her activities with the animals. This destroyed the relationship I had cultivated in the previous life to include romance. It instead formed a relationship of necessity and lust. In other words, humanity as Terrans realized it to the end."

"When necessity died out, and I could no longer make the animals, we sort of split off into our own wanderings. I recovered priceless artifacts. She died somewhere in Europe. I never found out why."

"I ended up dying...again. I died thanks to the few Terrans left on Chiron, namely Deidre and Yang who had formed up a collective society of humanity called the Chirotes. These Chirotes journeyed to Earth to set up a new colony and restore humanity back to it's former glory. I heard them saying as much for a long time. They caught me, I wasn't as mentally sharp back then. Then I was tortured for nearly 47 years in what I would re-hash in my next life and call, the punishment sphere."

"I ended up dying in the longest attempt thus far. I lived to 3746."

"Now is when things get hairy. My seventh life began and I boarded myself up in my room and thought to myself. Being a sheep had not worked. Replacing one of the wolves had not worked. Running away had not worked. What was I missing?"

"So into my seventh life I had the experience of a man over 5,000 years in age. 5,089 to be exact. I knew the ins and the outs of humanity and how things affected the flow of history to the point I was an old hand at the game. The game of life and death."

"I let things start off just fine. I cooked and 'cried' when it was discovered that Captain Garland was found dead. I came up to the 'wise' form of Zakharov, our chief science advisor, and asked him if he'd look over some papers I had been drawing up."

"To his excitement, I had pretty much laid out the entire concept and design of how to make lasers effective in use, to the point that with a little tweaking they could be used as weapons. Within the next few weeks the Unity was in total disarray and I found myself, as I had planned, to be the right-hand man of Zakharov. When the crew split into seven factions, I was Vice-Provost of the University."

"With finesse I was able to live under Zakharov's rule as an indispensable source of new knowledge. My brilliance was always made to rival, slip ahead, or slip behind Zakharov as we raced to find the secrets of everything. In fact, you could call us the unethical best friends on all of Chiron. With the other as sounding boards we grew the University populace to control the Northern and Eastern continents with ease. As some of the most vile men alive in 2310 alone, we shared the form of a bound Deidre Skye. Giving her back and forth as the other needed some special time."

"We were, frankly, corrupt. We were Terran. And we were unashamed of it. A united force attempted to blunt our efforts in acquiring power to ourselves and we knocked it down. Though we could not do so and remain at the top. We slipped a little, and things evened out to the point that the University was considered the big dog that had grown tame, more or less."

"That was by 2440 in my seventh life. Zakharov and I enjoyed the immense pleasure of some of the cruelest things we did to Deidre. We would sometimes experiment on her with new devices trying to control her mind. We once had an empath come in and subvert her will without diminishing her sense of self and the three of us shared the spoils."

"In fact...I seem to recall more memories of raping Deidre than of anything from my seventh life."

"I digress. Other than this, I colonized the little Island of Dexamenus with approval from my Provost and the University made splendid use of the island. It was then that we discovered the necessary materials that we could process to make the necessary materials in order to reach back into space. It was like a dream come true. Zakharov and I launched the thing straight into production and the, once, little island of Dexamenus became the central hub for space flight with all four factions."

"You see, Corazon had long since conquered all of the Western continent, while Lal held onto his Central continent with an iron grip of democracy. Yang had sunk into the ocean and his entire civilization was marine."

"The early Central Space Hub, or CSH for short, was certainly not effective enough to meet the demands that we wanted for our experiments; much less what the other three factions would want it for. We even would do so, for the right amount of funds and cooperation in this and that side matter."

By now, Eric had long given up trying to ignore or escape the hologram of his father as he dictated this madness. Eric had run a hand through his black locks and sat himself down awaiting the conclusion of this lecture.

"By 2509 we had managed to make the CSH efficient and effective enough in the many launch pads and collection of data gathering points along with storage facilities for the things absolutely needed in space that we could at last in a full, glorious effort step back into space."

"I was the first man back into space. I was followed by thousands upon thousands of scientists and workers where we constructed the first space station. It was large enough to house 4,000 souls. It was the same size as most cities on Chiron. In fact, it was rather average with many of the less populated and yet urbanized areas of all four continents."

"Our first major project was to colonize and terraform Alpha Rhea. When we had over 5,000 colonists on it working, we then placed colonists on both Beta Rhea and Delta Rhea, the other two smaller moons of Chiron. These new sites were more than ideal for myself and Zakharov, so we moved the capital to New Delhi on Alpha Rhea."

"However, I was sent back to the old capital, University Headquarters, in order to keep a grounded view on the political scheme. It was in this way that I uncovered a plot to assassinate Zakharov and use me as a scapegoat."

"I foiled the attempt and took a leaf from their note, not having forgotten my despair at never succeeding as having been the sheep. I used their exact same plan for the most part and used it to assassinate Zakharov and then pinned it down on Yang."

"The public outcry from all sides had the four military mights clashing outside of Yang Port, the capital of the Hive, and the Hive was summarily split into three portions amongst the victors. I, had suddenly discovered my talent. I was good at playing the sheep and emerging as the wolf. That was who I was. It was that very same character who had poisoned Captain Garland. So now determined, I had made up my mind to do what the Unity had failed to do. Unite man."

"Zakharov had been killed, by 'mysterious means', in 2672. So it was in 2674 that we conquered the Hive, and thus it was 2675 that I was declared Provost of the University."

"It was accepted by Lal and Corazon for one reason, and one reason only. I was Terran. This more than anything angered me beyond belief and I am ashamed to admit that I took that frustration out on the ever bound and gagged form of Deidre."

"This system continued for over 200 years without interruption. It was not as if I could simply bypass certain ideologies that were a part of the three factions that made up humanity now. The Spartans were so militaristic that they were without a doubt preparing themselves for the final battle to see who took all of humanity into their fold. The Peacekeepers were supposedly free thinkers and for the most part it made them the most Terran out of the seven besides the Morganites."

"So by 2883, Alpha Rhea, Beta Rhea, and Delta Rhea were as cramped with various people to keep things in balance. Chiron was cramped even more so. Our population stood at over seven million people. Quite a large number in a world that had trouble obtaining one million."

"Things were so cramped because by and large a lot of the planet was devoted to their lifestyle. This exact same problem had occurred on Earth. The answer had been to build sea cities. We had emulated this and now had crowded oceans and lakes. It was thus a conglomerated effort to build sky cities. This was abandoned after someone pointed out the original space station and it's successors."

"Feeling rather silly, our sky cities were abandoned and we built over 80 space stations, nothing worthy of being considered a city anymore. They housed over 400,000 people from all four planetary objects and we had a little breathing room."

"Then for the fun of it, I tinkered into one of the abandoned sky cities and built one with the University flag on it. It came into active service with many adjustments along the way and caused a war."

"That was in 3011. I found it a tad bit humorous to think I had died once in 3011."

"To the amazement of all, I managed to subvert most of the enemy forces on the spacial bodies of inhabitation by collecting them into the University fold. I essentially convinced them that the University was going to win. That was just an obvious given."

"On Chiron however, war waged for 18 years until in 3029 I stood over Corazon with a triumphant smirk. I drank from a chalice in her bedroom, raped my captive, and then felt the poison eat away at my insides."

"I realized with a start that I had been tricked. I had been killed at my lowest moment and noticed someone walking over. My vision was blurring. My head was pounding with pain. I noticed it looked oddly of a combination of Deidre and Lily. I retracted in fear of the woman and rightfully so. It was, what mankind would call, Death."

"I had at last run out of juice. But all things have their price. I bargained with Death. I asked for two more lifetimes. I'd find my own way into Heaven and get this right."

"My eighth life started much as the same as the seventh. Only now I had lost the emotion to it all except one thing. I really craved my own Deidre doll. Yet, given time on the ship I lost much of that which had made me the University Provost who had come out on top and subsequently die from it."

"I was 6,086 in the realm of experience. So when I came to love the very tool I had used for so long, I felt my humanity return to me...not as a Terran...but as a Chirote."

"It felt amazing and to the best of my abilities I used subterfuge in order to have her. I was, however, unaware of my previous lives thanks to my deal with Death."

"So I was just acting brilliant without the precise knowledge as to why I could be that way. It just came naturally to me and I could never explain it as I formed the Dragonites and thusly declared independence in my eighth life."

"You know the rest of the story...up until these past few years."

"You know the entire thing my son, my only son and heir. You will and have achieved what I long ago could not do in nine lifetimes. You have united mankind."

The hologram seemed to be fading.

"Do not forget, I will always be with you. I am merely crossed over my son."

The hologram was fading rapidly.

"Here...th-...books...m-...lif-...work." It looked like the figure was shrugging but with so little left it was impossible to tell. "All...si-...tho-...fif-...nine of...the-..."

Eric gazed about and indeed, there had to be thousands of books in this cramped space. He couldn't even tell how long he'd been sitting here, listening to his father's story, rapt in attention.

He noticed a small note in front of a arch of stone with markings on it. It simply read, "Gate to Heaven."

A tear forming in his eye, Eric looked about once more. His old man was finally gone. He had ascended the stairs to heaven. The other side.

**(Story)**

**AN: November 24th, 2011: Wow! That took a long time to edit. ...Probably because I got caught up in the story again. Speaking of which, that means all I have to do is add the a time line and an END chapter for a place for reviews to go after I've finished up this entire story. You should feel happy, you've read through these stories and lived (if you followed the plot line successfully)**

**_Eye of the Dragon_**

_**When Gaians Throw an Orgy**_

___**The End**_

_**Divine Intervention**_

_**Stairs to Heaven**_

**That means that you have read what is essentially a 75,000+ story. Not only does that mean you have no life, but it also means neither do I! .**

**Anyway, when I finish up with the details with this story I've also got two other Brianback stories which take place in the original timeline (Mogul's eighth life) which follows Eric Brianback Santiago and humanity as if Mogul did die in _The End_. I plan to get the original stories back into shape first before I continue on in ****_Xenocide_ (aptly named after the book by Orson Scott Card). Funny story, I had almost five chapters for _Xenocide_ when my computer freak-erased all of them. I became so enraged that I stopped writing after the first chapter for that universe and a few months later, had the inspiration to write as if Mogul Brianback had never really died at all. Neat huh? _Divine Intervention_ might be better named _Divine Inspiration_.**

**Again, anyway, thanks for reading my story! Please review and let me know what you think of it.**

**Review!**


	7. UNDER CONSTRUCTION

It has been my great pleasure writing this story and the accumulated six other stories relating to Mogul Brianbacks. I find it time for me to lay him to rest as, let's be honest, with only 46 stories in the Alpha Centauri section and with myself having written seven of those...I've written roughly 15 percent of the total archive. All of which concern and are focused around the Mogul Brianbacks Universe.

If you've enjoyed this series or even just this story, please review. It makes a weary writer feel good to receive reviews. I don't mind the flames, I like the advice. Find useful information in all formations of rock, an' all.

If you desire to, and please don't laugh when I say this, to write a story about Mogul or something about the Dragonites, just send me a message to get my approval. Make sure to reference where you got your ideas. I don't want to see any unreferenced Spectrumites running around or I'll send the Chirotes after you.

Well, it's been fun all! Au revoir.


	8. Author's Note

******AN: I do not own any part of the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri universe except the crazy ideas I may write about for your viewing pleasure.**

Possibilities. The Brianback Series is all about possibilities. Raise the standard, move beyond the horizon, explore, research, industry, et cetera. Advancing while holding the line. Giving an inch but taking a mile. This story has always been inspired by the idea of a man who tries digging within the fabric of humanity to produce something _better than humanity_.

Granted, Mogul Brianback is a sociopath. He cares little to nothing for the _human condition_. Lives are expendable for his greater good, and sometimes I think we might all think a little like that.

I have heard it said that someone needs to take charge of the mindless drones, that someone (autocracy) or a few someones (oligarchy) need to have the final say in how not only our society, but all of humanity, should proceed forward in time. Let it be said this system has its' benefits, but it also has its' deficiencies.

The saying goes, "power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." There is truth to these words. It takes a strong power of will to abstain from corruption. A good example of this would be _Kingdom of Heaven_ (2005).

However, for all the egalitarian benefits of rule by the people (democracy) or rule through representation (republicanism), those systems also have proven to be indecisive at best and fickle at the worst.

When I began this series of stories, I did not have a perfect model in my mind of what I was thinking of at the time. I had seen an anime called _Death Note_, and something about its' ending was upsetting to me. I found myself cheering for the anti-hero: Light. I wanted this man orchestrating the deaths of thousands to win over society's watch guards and create a new world order. I was tired of despairing at the thought of repeating the same mistakes as my own ancestors and wished for some real change.

Then, in between stories of this series, I found an anime called _Code Geass_. It attracted me in ways that other plot lines have utterly failed before or since. The dramatic rise of a vestige of the old world to recreate the world for something as innocent as a little sister and accepting no limit to the blood that one must get on their hands to achieve that goal.

When I think of Light and Lelouch, the commonality I feel and share with their goals is a maelstrom within my mind! And, in part, I hoped to share some of that with you, my readers. Perhaps you may disagree with such politics, and that is understandable. Not everyone wants change, not everyone needs change. But for those that do, something in Mogul (an auspicious name for his politics) is agreeable to the idea of change. And like Light, like Lelouch, like V, from _V for Vendetta_ (2006), the person who creates a new world must die as the final sacrifice for their efforts.

**AN: November 24th, 2011: I don't know why I wrote this first before the time line (because I'm lazy) but here it is. I hope this helps explain the intention behind the Brianback Series a little better.**


	9. END

**AN: I do not own any part of the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri universe except the crazy ideas I may write about for your viewing pleasure.**

**Well folks, this is what I call the 'END' chapter where I will post my responses to your reviews so it doesn't clutter up one of the chapters with 50 some review responses (I could only wish)...**

**So, if you post any more reviews, this is where my comments to them will go.**

**Review Commentaries:**

**(none at the moment)**


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